267 



fossils, Lacepede has thought himself authorized in considering them as 

 belonging to Testudo marina vulgaris, of Ray ; or Testudo mydas, of Lin- 

 naeus. Camper mentions his possessing the entire back of a fossil tortoise, 

 four feet in length and six inches in breadth, found in St. Peter's Moun- 

 tain, Maestricht. He speaks also of other remains of the tortoise found 

 in the same part, and particularly of a fossil, similar to his own, in the 

 Museum of John Hunter. Philos. Trans. 1786. 



The great disproportion existing between the length and breadth of 

 the back of the fossil described by Camper, has also been found to exist 

 in another fossil from the same spot, in the possession of M. Preston, at. 

 Liege : it being four feet two inches in length, and only six inches in 

 breadth. This peculiarity of form is considered by Faujas St. Fond, as 

 proceeding from these being the remains of some unknown species of 

 this genus, in which the hard and osseous covering was extended only 

 along the vertebral column, whilst the remaining part of the back was 

 covered with a coriaceous or horny covering, somewhat resembling that 

 of T. lyra, Linn. Faujas St. P'ond has presented to the Museum of 

 Natural History at Paris the fossil remains of three tortoises from Maes- 

 tricht. Two of these resemble each other in possessing, different from 

 the ordinary tortoise, two prolongations at the upper angles, as if of the 

 arm, and forming an oval notch where the head was placed. The 

 third differs from those just mentioned, as well as from the common tor- 

 toise, in the general form of its shell ; which gives, at first view, the idea 

 of a cuirass, with a double neckpiece or gorget. 



M. Faujas St. Fond obtained from the quarry of Grand Charon e part 

 of the shell of a tortoise, which was connected with an alated bony 

 appendix, such as was observed in the remains of the more gigantic tor- 

 toises which he found in St. Peter's Mountain. Ann. du Mus. Tome n. 

 p. 108. 



Reviewing the preceding account, it appears, that all of the six speci- 

 mens found at Melsbroeck, appear, according to Faujas St. Fond, to 

 belong to T. mydas four specimens from Aix, all belong to one unknown 



