486 Zoological Society : — 



that of C. oblonga and C. Colliei, and not expanded and broader, as 

 in C. longicollis and C. sulcifera. 



Chelodina longicollis. 



A fine shell of the adult animal of this species, larger than any I 

 have hitherto received, was in the collection. 



The shell is rather convex and swollen on the sides, with a deep, 

 broad, rounded concavity along the centre of the second, third and 

 fourth vertebral plate, about two-thirds the width of the plates. The 

 black sutural lines on the sternum are narrow and uniform. 



Length of the shell 8^ ; width 6 inches. 



CheLYMYS MACaUARIA. 



Two adult specimens of this kind were also in the series. They 

 are both much darker than the two specimens in the British Museum 

 Collection. They are also peculiar for having a very distinct, deep, 

 narrow, interrupted groove along the vertebral line, deepest and 

 widest on the fourth vertebral plate. The discal shields are also 

 marked with rather deep distinct radiating grooves, which are evi- 

 dently indentations in the bones of the animal, only covered by the 

 very thin skin-like shields. 



Shell, length 11, breadth 8 inches. 



On some Fish from Asia Minor and Palestine. By Sir 

 John Richardson, C.B., F.R.S. L. & Ed. etc. 



Through the kindness of Dr. Gray of the British Museum, I have 

 been permitted to examine a small collection of Fish made by H. 

 Poole, Esq., in Palestine and Asia Minor. Though they do not pre- 

 sent to the ichthyologist any novel generic forms, they are interest- 

 ing on account of the localities in which they were found. 



Cyprinodon IIammonis, Cuv. et Val. xviii. 169, 



This small fish was taken in a marshy spot, on the immediate 

 beach of the Dead Sea, at Usdum, the supposed site of Sodom. The 

 marsh, which contained some very small puddles of salt-water in 

 which the fish were swimming, and from whence they were scooped 

 out with ease by the hands, is fed by a saline spring which issues some- 

 what higher up, and is so little above the level of the sea, that Mr. 

 Poole believed that the fish were washed into the pools by the waves. 

 The opinion that the exhalations of the Dead Sea are immediately 

 fatal to animal life, and that not even a bird can fly over it, has long 

 been exploded. One of Mr. Poole's companions bathed in it daily 

 with impunity, and even fancied that in diving he had discovered 

 the remains of a ruined city under its waters, opposite to Usdum. 

 Mr. Poole also observed ducks diving in it, and concluded, justly we 

 think, that they must have found something edible to induce them 

 to repeat that act, which they did frequently. 



Lieut. Lynch of the U. S. Navy examined the water of the Dead 



