REPTILES. 361 



CLASS III. BEPTILIA. 



ORDER I. TESTUDINATA, (Turtles.) 



THE order of Chelonian reptiles has been a troublesome 

 chapter in the herpetology of North America. An elabo- 

 rated synonymy of genera and species, with a history of the 

 same in this, and many other departments of natural science, 

 would be literary and scientific curiosities. 



Is the magnificent monograph of Louis Agassiz the ar- 

 dently hoped for finality on this subject, and is the student 

 of the testudinata henceforward to have cleared fields, and 

 beaten paths, and to forget immediately agonizing columns 

 of effete synonyms, monuments of the struggles of ambi- 

 tious hunters of new species, and rejoice over the abso- 

 lute fixation forever of generic and specific forms ? As the 

 learned professor has brought the old " order into doubt," it 

 is but reasonable to expect, that after a profound and laborious 

 exploration of the whole ground, with an innumerable me- 

 nagerie of living turtles, already drilled and catalogued by 

 an illustrious group of scientific predecessors, together with 

 the assistance of the whole contemporary lay or uncanonical 

 world, he shall surely arrange it that " chaos shall never 

 come again." 



The classification of the " Contributions" will no doubt 

 be safe for cataloguing the few chelonians of the mountain 

 for the present. 



The Alleghany in Pennsylvania is embraced within Agas- 

 siz's northeastern division of the chelonian faunae of North 

 America. This extends northeast beyond the forty-fifth 

 isotherm, west to Lake Erie, and south to North Carolina, 

 being protracted " along the Alleghanies even as far south 

 as Georgia." According to Agassiz, the boundary of this 



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