Two enormous coracoids, a femur, and part of a clavicle of the Megalosaurus, have lately been discovered at Stonesfield, and added to the Museum collection: these are at present in Room II. Wall-case C.

In the following cases commences the matchless collection of British Enaliosaurians, or Marine Reptiles, chiefly of the genera Plesiosaurus, and Ichthyosaurus, from the Lias of Dorsetshire, Somersetshire, and Gloucestershire, collected by Thomas Hawkins, Esq. F. G. S.

D. [4.] A beautiful Plesiosaurus Hawkinsii, and a cast of the same.

Plesiosaurus dolichodeirus. (Long-necked—the neck being equal in length to the body and tail united.)—On the top of this case is the original specimen of this species, described by Rev. W. D. Conybeare in 1822. (See " Geol. Trans." second series, vol. i. Pl. XVIII.)

E. [5. On the left, Plesiosaurus macrocephalus, presented by the Earl of Enniskillen.

Plesiosaurus rugosus, from the Lias near Belvoir Castle; a nearly entire specimen of this rare species; presented by the Duke of Rutland.

F. [6.] In the upper division, Plesiosaurus Hawkinsii. Below are exquisite specimens of the same species, and part of a Plesiosaurus dolichodeirus.

Above Case A, are remains of large fossil Turtles.

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C. Portions of the skeleton of a gigantic marine reptile (Polyptychodon), from the Greensand of Hythe, in Kent, presented by H. B. Mackeson, Esq.

D. The original specimen of Plesiosaurus dolichodeirus.

E. A specimen of Plesiosaurus arcuatus. G. [7.] Remains of Mammalia, Birds, and Reptiles, from the Eocene lacustrine deposits, near Clermont, in Auvergne. This most valuable collection is not yet arranged; it comprises many species and genera of pachyderms allied to the Anoplotheria; rodents, carnivora, marsupials, ruminants, and saurian and batrachian reptiles. There are several fossil eggshells, either of birds or reptiles.

H. [8.] Bones, teeth, &c. of Ruminants and Pachyderms, from the Diluvium or Drift. (Unarranged.)

MINERALS.

TABLE-CASE 1.-[47.] Carbonates of lime and magnesia. Rhomb-spar; dolomite; brown spar; flexible dolomite, from Pittsfield, Massachusetts, North America.

2. [14.] In this and Cases 15 and 16, are deposited most of the oxides of iron. Magnetic iron ore; crystallized varieties; natural magnets; magnetic ironsand.

Tufaceous

3. [46.] Calcite; pisiform limestone, or pea-stone, from the hot springs of Carlsbad, in Bohemia. Tufaceous limestone. Human skull incrusted, from the Tiber, at Rome. casts, from the Baths of San Filippo, near Tivoli.1 4. [15.] Iron-glance, or specular oxide, from Elba, Stromboli, Vesuvius: red ironstone, and red hematite.

5. [45 A and B.] Marbles of various kinds. In [45 A.] specimens of the Corinthian lumachella, or fire-marble: the beautiful play of colours is produced by the fossil laminated shells imbedded.

6. [16.] Hydrous oxide of iron, or brown ironstone. Specimens of argillaceous, or clay ironstone, as the reniform, columnar, and pisiform, or pea-ore.

7. [45.] Prismatic modifications of crystallized calcite, with stalactites and fibrous varieties, from Sweden, Cumberland, &c. 8. [17.] Oxides of copper; red, or ruby copper; black oxide; oxide of bismuth; red oxide of zinc; red and yellow earthy cobalt. Oxide of uranium.

9. [43, 44.] Crystallized varieties of calcite or calc spar; specimens illustrative of double refraction, cleavage, supernumerary joints, colour, &c.; secondary, obtuse, and acute rhombohedrons. Crystallized sandstone of Fontainbleau.

10. [18.] Oxide of lead; native minium. Oxide of tin or tinstone. Metallic tin; some thick tin wires, brought from Soudan, in Africa, by Captain Clapperton.

11. [11.] Various forms of aragonite. A variety of carbonates of lime, containing a small percentage of carbonate of strontia; coralloidal aragonite; varieties of carbonate of lime, or calcite.

12. [19.] Alumina and Aluminates. Corundum; Emery; Indianite. Aluminates of magnesia; the spinel; chrysoberyls, in large crystals, from Brazils and the Urals; and in a See Wonders of Geology," vol. i. p. 75.

matrix of quartz and felspar, with garnets from Haddam, in Connecticut.

13. [41.] Carbonates of soda; of barytes, or witherite ; barytocalcite; carbonate of strontia.

The remainder of this Case is filled with varieties of aragonite.

14. [20.] Amethystine quartz. Rock crystal in various modifications and colours, from Gibraltar, Bristol, &c.; rock crystal in a wrought state; among these is the celebrated Dr. Dee's show-stone. (See Sir Walter Scott's "Demonology.") 15. [40.] Silicates, with one or more borates. Tourmaline ; axinite; rubellite; of the latter a remarkable example, presented by the King of Ava to the late Col. Symes. Indicolite, &c.

16. [21.] Common quartz in great variety; numerous pseudomorphous crystals, derived from modifications of calcareous and fluor spars. Stalagmitic quartz from the hot springs of the Geysers in Iceland, Santa Fiora in Tuscany, and from Luzon, one of the Philippine Islands. Specimens of "lightning tubes," from England and from Africa. Hyalite, Haytorite, aventurino quartz, &c.

17. [39.] Molybdic acid and molybdates. Oxide of chromium and chromates. Boracic acid, or sassoline, from Vulcano; borate of magnesia; datholite, &c.

18. [22.] Varieties of quartz. Prase; hornstone; among the specimens of hornstone is a splendid example of the silicified stem of a palm (psarolinite); cat's eye, from Ceylon; chert; flint; groups of stalactitical flint passing into calcedony; flint nodules, containing water; calcedonies.

19. [38.] Silicates containing yttria and protoxide of cerium. Combinations of columbic, or tantalic acid, with protoxides of iron, lime, magnesia, yttria, zirconia, &c. Oxides of antimony. Tungstates. Vanadic acid and vanadates.

20. [23.] Calcedonic substances, cut and polished. Carnelian; plasma; heliotrope; bloodstone; chrysoprase from Kosemütz, in Silesia. Agates; a beautiful agate nodule, from the trap formation of Central Asia, presented by C. Fraser, Esq.

21. Table containing polished slabs of various marbles. 22. Table with polished slabs of coralline marbles.

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23. The MAIDSTONE IGUANODON. (See "Wonders of Geology," Pl. I.) In the hexagonal case placed on the ground beneath the central north window is a block of Kentish rag, or sandstone, containing a considerable portion of the skeleton of a young Iguanodon; the bones are separated and displaced. Discovered in a quarry of Kentish rag, near Maidstone, Kent, by Mr. Bensted, 1834. This is the most remarkable specimen of the Iguanodon hitherto obtained.

24. Table of Serpentine. Table inlaid with porphyries, &c. 25. This table contains a fine series of bivalve shells (Conchifera), one division from the Tertiary strata-chiefly from the Crag; the other from the Inferior Oolite, and other secondary deposits; arranged and named by Mr. Woodward.

26. In the centre of the room is a table formed of an extremely beautiful stalagmitic marble, from Hartle, Derbyshire.

CHAPTER III.

PART II.

FOSSIL REPTILES.

AGE OF REPTILES-FOSSIL BONES OF REPTILES-FOSSIL TURTLES-PLATEMYSCHELONIA HARVICENSIS-CHELONIA BREVICEPS-WEALDEN TURTLES-CHELONIA BELLII—EMY DIANS-TRETOSTERNUM BAKEWELLI.

THE AGE OF REPTILES.-The announcement of the illus trious Founder of Palæontology, that there was a period when the lakes and rivers of our planet were peopled by reptiles, and cold-blooded oviparous quadrupeds of appalling magnitude were the principal inhabitants of the dry land,—when the seas swarmed with saurians exclusively adapted for a marine existence, and the regions of the atmosphere were traversed by winged lizards instead of birds, was an enunciation so novel and startling, as to require the prestige of the name of CUVIER to obtain for it any degree of attention or credence, even from those who were sufficiently enlightened to perceive that a universal deluge would not account for the mutations which the surface of the earth and its inhabitants had, in the lapse of innumerable ages, undergone.1

Subsequent discoveries have, however, established the truth of this proposition to an extent beyond what even its promulgator could have surmised; and the " Age of Reptiles" is now admitted into the category of established facts.

1 "Nous remontons donc à un autre âge du monde; à cet âge où la -terre n'étoit encore parcourue que par des reptiles à sang froid-où la mer abondoit en ammonites, en bélemnites, en térébratules, en encrinites, et où tous ces genres, aujourd'hui d'une rareté prodigieuse, faisoient le fond de sa population."-Ossemens Fossiles, tom. v. p. 10.

2" The Age of Reptiles," was the title given by the author to a popular summary of the evidence bearing on this question, which was published in the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal for 1831. The name, as now generally employed, comprises those geological epochs which are characterized by the predominance of oviparous quadrupeds, viz. from the Trias to the Chalk inclusive.