296 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
sequentlj by Professor Owen, in tbeTolumeof the Palaeontographical 
Society's publications for 1851. 
The chalk was dissected away, so as to admit of the removal of a 
great portion of the dorsal shell, and thus some 
of the vertebrae, four plates of the plastron, and 
a coracoid bone were brought to view. 
Since the discovery of the Chelonia Bensteclii, 
Mrs. Smith, of Tuubridge "Wells, has procured 
from the same pit a series of marginal and ster- 
nal plates of a turtle of very large size. These 
specimens have been admirably cleared from the 
chalk, and now form a part of her most inter- 
esting and valuable collection. 
In 1847, another fossil turtle was found in an 
adjoining pit in the Lower Chalk. It corre- 
sponded in size and number of plates with, in- 
deed it was almost a facsimile of, the original 
Chelonia Benstedii. 
Perhaps the most interesting fossils found in 
\ this locality, were some long, slender, cylindrical 
bones, which Professor Owen considered, in the 
first instance (1840), if they were the remains of 
a bird at all, as being more allied to the Alba- 
tross than to any otTier. The bones there no- 
^'^''^T^rTl'irp'^^ ticed are the portion of a humerus nine inches 
from Halliu2: Chalk Pit. , ^ , , , , ,, 
long, with one extremity nearly entire, but the 
other broken completely ofi'. The uncertainty expressed by Professor 
Owen was afterwards cleared up by the discovery, by Dr. Bowerbank, 
of the head and teeth of a new species of Pterodactyle, described by 
him in the Geological Society's Journal, 1845, when he assigned 
these bones, from their microscopic structure, to that extraordinary 
class of flying reptiles. 
The fine specimen of DoUchosaurus, described in the Palaeontolo- 
gical Society's Volume for 1851, was discovered here by Mrs. Smith, 
of Tunbridge Wells, in 1830. A similar fossil (probably part even 
of the same specimen) was obtained from this same locality by Sir 
Philip Egerton, in 1840, and was briefly described by Professor Owen 
as the remains of a lizard, consisting of a series of small vertebrae 
in their natural position. The vertebras are united by ball-and- 
socket joints, and they are proved to belong to the Saurian class of 
reptiles by the presence of many long slender ribs, and by the conver- 
sion of two A'ertebrae into a sacrum. Portions of an ischium and a pubes 
are connected with the left side of the sacrum, and demonstrate that 
the reptile had hinder extremities. These typical parts are referred 
to particularly, as the specimen otherwise has certainly more the ap- 
pearance of a serpent than a lizard. Serpents have long, slender ribs, 
and therefore the saurian character depends alone on the assumed 
sacrum, as the extremities are wanting. 
In December, 1842, Professor Owen described a fossil paddle which 
