THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST 103 
the greatest possible interest when studied in connection with the 
surrounding sedimentary deposits. Actual junctions are difficult to 
obtain on account of the debris of this once prevailing sandstone 
being now so widely scattered, but it is worthy of remark that it 
never develops a fissile structure in the neighbourhood of the “lower 
beds,” in which not only this, but other leading characteristics of 
silurian strata are so strongly marked. 
(To be continued.) 
IMBEDDED TORTOISES IN NEW SOUTH WALKS. 
[The following observations were made by the late William Keene, Esq., 
F.G.S., and are extracted from papers left by him. They were read 
before the Field Club, on behalf of Mrs. John Simson. | 
THREE tortoises were found in the course of 1859, in the rock in 
the railivay cutting between West Maitland and Singleton, New 
South Wales. The first tortoise was found on the 21st January, 
1859, and was sent to His Excellency Sir William Denison, whu 
presented it to the Museum, Sydney. It died in the course of the 
year. ‘The second tortoise was found on the 20th October, 1859; 
it was about the size of half a crown. It was alive, but its mouth 
was sealed; it had been injured in the breaking of the rock, and died 
three days afterwards. 
The third tortoise is the one in my possession. It was found on 
the 6th November, 1859, by Mr. Bewick, Superintendent of Works 
on the Great Northern Railway. It was found about the same 
place, on the same line of cutting where the others were found. 
The eyes and mouth were closed and did not open for two or three 
days after. The creature was exactly of the same kind, rather 
smaller than the first, and larger than the second taken. Mr. Keene 
weighed it accurately, and found it to weigh exactly sixty-nine 
grains. ‘lhe tortoise has been kept in a glass jar partly filled with 
water, which is renewed every second day. It feeds on flies, prawns, 
and fish, in preference to any other animal food; it will not eat 
vegetables of any kind. In cold weather its powers of deglutition 
seems altogether suspended, and it remains often for weeks, some- 
times the whole of the winter, without taking food. It has been 
weighed before it hibernates and afterwards. The last time it was 
weighed by Mr. W. Keene, (2nd October, 1871), it weighed 4440: 
grains troy, (ten ounces avoir.) 
The tortoise is singular, in so much as there has not been another 
one found which resembles it exactly in shape, which tends to confirm 
the evidence given of those who found it, that it came out of the 
solid rock, The rock was fossiliferous conglomerate, found in many 
