305 



May 20, 184L 



SIR JOHN WILLIAM LUBBOCK, Bart., V.P. and Treasurer, 

 in the Chair. 



Hart Davis, jun., Esq., the Rev. Joshua Frederick Denham, M.A., 

 the Rev. John Hoppus, LL.D., Henry Gaily Knight, Esq., M.P., 

 and Lieut. -Colonel Thomas Wood, M.P., were balloted for, and 

 duly elected into the Societ5^ 



The following papers were read, viz. — 



1 . " Catalogue of Geological Specimens procured from Kergue- 

 ien's Land during the months of May, June, and July, 1840." 



2. " Catalogue of Birds collected on board Her Majesty's Ship 

 Terror, between the Cape of Good Hope and Van Diemen's Land." 



3. " Description of Plants from Kerguelen's Land, collected in 

 May, June, and July, 1840." 



The above papers are by John Robertson, Esq., Surgeon of Her 

 Majesty's Ship Terror, and were presented to the Society by the 

 Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, and communicated by the 

 President of the Royal Societ}\ 



4. " On the Fossil Remains of Turtles discovered in the Chalk 

 Formation of the South-East of England." By Gideon Algernon 

 ManteU, Esq., LL.D., F.R.S. 



In this paper the author gives a description, accompanied with 

 drawings, of a remarkable fossil Turtle, referable to the genus Emys, 

 and named from its discoverer, Mr. Bensted, the Emys Benstedi, 

 which has been lately found in a quarry of the lower chalk of Kent, 

 at Burham, which is situated near the banks of the Medway, between 

 Chatham and Maidstone. The specimen discovered consists of the 

 carapace or dorsal shell, six inches in length and nearly four inches 

 in breadth, with some of the sternal plates, vertebrae, eight ribs on 

 each side of the dorsal ridge, a border of marginal plates, and one 

 of the coracoid bones. It is adherent to a block of chalk by the 

 external surface of the sternal plates. The marginal plates are 

 joined to each other by finely indented sutures, and bear the impress 

 of the horny scales or tortoise-shell, with which they were originally 

 covered. The expanded ribs are united together throughout the 

 proximal half of their length, and gradually taper to their marginal 

 extremities, which are protected by the plates of the osseous border. 

 Mr. Bell considers the species to which it belonged as being closely 

 aUied in form to the common European Emys, and as possessing a 

 truly fluviatile or lacustrine character. The plates of the plastron, 

 however, as also the coracoid bone, resemble more the corresponding 

 bones of marine than of freshwater turtles. 



