THE GEOLOGIST. 



FEBRUAKY 1863. 



TUETLES IN THE STONESFIELD SLATE. 



By the Editoe. 



Some time since, a gentleman handed me, at one of the meetings of 

 the Geologists' Association, a bone from the Stonesfield slate. Un- 

 fortunately the label attached to the specimen has been accidentally 

 lost, and consequently I can neither give due credit to its owner for 

 his find nor return the specimen to him as I would wish to do, as his 

 name and address are both thus unknown to me. 



The nature of the specimen was very evident, at the first glance, 

 to any practised palaeontologist. It is a bone that is peculiarly cha- 

 racteristic of a peculiar class of reptiles which, at the present day, 

 comprises the tortoises, terrapins, and turtles. In short, it is the 

 coracoid bone of some member of the family Chelonia. 



Our evidences of this order of reptiles, in strata of Mesozoie age, 

 are few and far between ; but Cheloniau remains are rare in the 



Secondary beds, chiefly by reason that many of our most productive 

 localities are neglected to be well worked. 



The impressions, probably referable to Chelonian animals, which we 

 have in the Triassic sandstones of Corncockle Muir, are at least 

 doubtful, and we shall not insist upon them as evidences here, hi 



VOL. VI. O 



Chehjs (?) Blakii (n. s.), from the Stonesfield slate. 



