74 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



around them, and both they, and the nodules subsequently, have appa- 

 rently been not uncommonly subjected to a considerable amount of rolling 

 and degradation. I^umerous kinds of shells are common in these nodules, 

 as are bones of pterodactyles and other reptiles. Our attention has lately, 

 been drawn to very numerous fragmentary remains of turtles, consisting 

 chiefly of the crania and lower jaws, with numerous fragments of the cara- 

 pace, ribs, and many vertebrae. The predominance of the skulls and lower 

 jaws in the collection we refer to, which was made by Mr. Farren, of Cam- 

 bridge, and has just been purchased by Mr. Gregory, is probably the mere 

 accidental result of the collecting of what might be deemed saleable speci- 

 mens, or that these portions being the most readily recognized, attracted 

 attention, while the other fragments of the limbs and body, more ob- 

 scure in their aspect, were left in nodule-heaps. Professor Owen has made 

 out distinctly, not less than four species, namely, — CJielone sulcimentum, 

 C. aUimentum, C. uncimentum, and C. dejyressimenium. But the point to 

 w]iich wc want to draw attention is, the district and the land-shores on which 

 these turtles lived. The Upper Greensand is a marine deposit, and the 

 beds at Cambridge seem closely allied to the grey chalk, especially as that 

 member of the cretaceous group appears developed in Kent and Sussex, 

 and therefore should have been formed under some considerable depth of 

 water. 



]S^ow all the Chelonise are of littoral habits, and as these greensand- 

 nodules, like the phosphate-nodules from the Gault and Lower Greensand, 

 and all the other deposits from which we have seen them, freajiently have 

 oyster and other sliells attached to them, it would seem that they had been 

 brought to a hardened state before they were imbedded in the strata where 

 we now find them. We ought therefore to look to some of the older for- 

 mations as the land whose coasts they inhabited. 



The turtles of the Wealden have never been properly collected, and it 

 is with a view^ to inducing some one to take up the search for tliem and 

 their comparison with these Upper Greensand fragments, that we have pub- 

 lished this note ; for to the Wealden lands a priori, it is that we should be 

 inclined to turn for the shores on which these ancient turtles lived, and 

 from which their concreted remains were probably washed down by the 

 tides and currents into the lower depths of the Wealden sea, where some 

 portions of the Upper Greensand were contemporaneously being deposited. 



Fossil Fea^ther. — From the lithographic stone of Solenhofen. in Bava- 

 ria, Hermann von ]\Ieyer has obtained a fossil imprcssi'^n of a feather, on 

 the two opposite surfaces of a split slab. This he cannot distinguish from 

 the feather of a bird. This interesting relic will be described and figured 

 in the " Pahrontographica." 



Devois'ian Fossils. — 'Errata. In the title, ./or Geological read Geo- 

 graphical. Page 19, line 14, for Devonshire read Devonian. Page 20, 

 line 14, for era read area. Page 20, line 5 from bottom, for Table IV. 

 reac^ Table \. — W. Pe.ngelly. 



FOEEIGN C0ERESP0™EXCE. 



Professor Schrcetter communicated to the Imperial Academy of Sciences 

 of Vienna, on the 17ih October, that a litha-mica, containing more than 

 three per cent, of rubidium, caesium, and lithium, lias been latel}'' foimd in 

 Saxony, and that samples of it had been sent to Professor Buusen, at Hei- 



