226 Mr. A. Newton on the Discovery of 



superimposed, and to have been the remains of two individuals, 

 which the writer declares to have belonged to Emys europcea of 

 Oken, as distinguished fi'om E. lutaria, though, I believe, the 

 best authorities now consider these two supposed species to be 

 identical. He also adds, in a note, that a third and entire ske- 

 leton, dug up a long time before in making a deep ditch near 

 Regnaholm, in the same province, had been brought to his 

 notice by Major Gyllenkrook since his communication to the 

 Academy. In a later volume of the same Transactions (1839, 

 pp. 194-211, tabb. hi. & iv.) Professor Nilsson notices a similar 

 discovery made at two places in Skane, one specimen having 

 been found in 1839 near Grafve, in the pastorate of Bragarp, at 

 a depth of 8 feet, in peat, and another disinterred the following 

 year, near Fuglie, in the pastorate of Hvallinge. He gives a 

 minute description of the former example, detailing some points 

 of difference observable between it and recent specimens of 

 Emys lutaria, Bp., which differences he there considers sufficient 

 to warrant his designating the fossil as E. lutaria," vav. borealis." 

 In 1842, this veteran naturalist, in his e Skandinavisk Herpeto- 

 logi' (p. 11, note), mentions that, more than twenty years pre- 

 viously, he had received from a student a living example of E. 

 lutaria, captured in the district of Falsterbo, the extreme south 

 point of Sweden, which, at the time, he thought could only have 

 been an imported animal, accidentally escaped, and so neglected 

 to make further inquiries respecting it. He likewise states 

 (p. 10, note) that, shortly before the publication of his work, he 

 had obtained, from Medic. Candid. Fornander, fragments of a 

 fossil Tortoise found in a moss in CEland. This he identifies 

 with the existing Emys lutaria, and appears content to let his 

 own "borealis" sink into obscurity, as if doubtful of its validity 

 even as a variety. 



Fourteen years ago, Professor Steenstrup announced to the 

 Copenhagen Scientific Association (Overs, over det Vidensk. 

 Selsk. Forhandl. 1848, p. 74) the discovery of the dorsal portion 

 of the skeleton of a Water- Tortoise in a turf-moss at Overdraaby, 

 near Jsegerspris, in Zealand (Sjoelland), and, in doing so, referred 

 to Professor Nilsson's statements just quoted. Some years 

 later, he communicated to the same Association (1855, p. 1) the 

 fact that the sternum and vertebras of another individual had 

 been found in a similar formation at Egholm, not far from the 

 locality last mentioned ; and soon after, the same illustrious 

 zoologist gave an account (1855, p. 384) of the remains of a 

 third, but smaller and younger, example, which had since been 

 obtained at that spot. 



I regret that it is beyond my power to furnish a full and de- 

 tailed description of the specimens whose discovery I now record. 



