304 E. T. Neuion — On Emys lutaria from the Norfolk Coast. 



admitting a changeable level of sea, not every irregularity can be 

 referred to it. On the contrary, it is, as said above, a scientific fact, 

 that sinkings and upheavals of the land throughout all the great 

 geological periods have been effected in a way that seems to prove, 

 without a doubt, that they must have been the results of subterranean 

 forces. Consequently, a sinking of the land may, it is evident, go 

 on within a hemisphere, where at the same time the level of the sea 

 is becoming lower. In order, therefore, to clear up the question in 

 every particular, it will be necessary to examine whether the 

 changes in the elevation of the mountain region are real or only 

 apparent. Only after sufficiently exhaustive researches have been 

 gathered and carefully studied, will it be possible to draw any 

 conclusions, entitled to the name of scientific facts, touching the 

 above question. 



IV. — Note on some Fossil Kemains of Emts lutaria. from the 



Norfolk Coast. 



By E. T. Newton, F.G.S., 



of the Geological Survey. 



THE remains of a Tortoise from that peculiar fluviatile deposit on 

 the Norfolk coast, known as the " Mundesley Eiver Bed," have 

 lately been placed in my hands for determination by Mr. C. W. Ewing, 

 of Eaton, near Norwich, and, although the European freshwater tortoise 

 has already been recorded as occurring in a fossil condition in Norfolk 

 (Prof. A. Newton, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 1862, ser. 3, vol. x. 

 p. 224), yet it seemed desirable that some notice should be taken of 

 this most interesting discovery. The specimen was obtained by Mr. 

 Ewing from the peaty bed in the cliff section at Mundesley, so long 

 ago as 1863 ; but it was only quite recently that it was for the first 

 time exhibited, at one of the meetings of the Norwich Science Gossip 

 Club. 



This specimen includes the greater part of the left half of the 

 carapace and plastron, and one costal plate of the right side. None 

 of the neural plates were found, and the first costal of the left side is 

 likewise wanting. Portions of each of the left costals from the 

 second to the seventh are sufficiently well preserved to allow of 

 their being fitted together with the nine marginal plates which are 

 also preserved, so that the general contour of the carapace may be 

 very fairly made out. The nine marginal plates form a consecutive 

 series, the hinder eight of which correspond to the eight costal 

 plates, and each has a pit at its upper and inner margin for the 

 reception of the end of a rib. The marginal plates corresponding 

 to the second, third, fourth, and fifth costal plates, are produced 

 downwards and form an elongated, roughened surface for the attach- 

 ment of the plastron ; but from the nature of this surface it is 

 evident that there was no osseous connexion between the carapace 

 and plastron, but that cartilage or ligament intervened, as in the 

 recent Emys. The portions of the plastron which have been pre- 

 served are the left xiphiplastron, and pieces of the left hyoplastron 

 and hypoplastron. The last-mentioned bone retaining the ascending 



