85 
GALLERY.] NATURAL HISTORY. (Fossils.; 
such as those from the fresh water formation of Oeningen &o will 
hereafter be arranged in Table Cases to be made for their reception 
On the lower shelves of the Cases 3, 4, and 5, is placed a very ex- 
tensive series of cut and polished specimens of fossil wood, most of them 
trom the red sandstone formation of Chemnitz in Saxony, and New 
Paka in Bohemia, and many of them described and figured in Cotta’s 
work : Die Dendrolithen , Dresden , 1832. The genera Tubicaulis 
Psaromus ( Staar-stein) and Porosus, no doubt belong to the Filices •’ 
many of the remainder are referable to the Palms, and a still greater 
portion of them to the Coniferse ; in the vicinity of which natural orders 
they are respectively placed in the Wall Cases. 
The slabs of sandstone on the north wall of this Room, with the sup- 
posed tracks of an unknown animal called Chirotherium, are, that on 
the left, from the quarries of Hildburghausen in Saxony ; and that in 
the centre, from those of Storton Hill, near Liverpool, (the latter pre- 
sented by J. Tomkinson, Esq.) On the right hand are placed slabs 
from the same new red sandstone formation, with equally eniomatical 
imprests of various dimensions, called Ornithichnites, being very like 
foot marks of birds: they occur in the sandstone beds near Greenfield, 
Massachusetts, at a cataract in the Connecticut river, known by the 
name of Turner’s Falls. J 
The two Cases placed against the piers, between the windows of the 
E. wall of the room, contain a suite of varieties of wood opal from 
Van Diemen’s Land, presented by Mrs. Howley, the lady of His Grace 
the Archbishop of Canterbury. 
Room II. 
In the Wall Cases of Room II. are various mammalian remains, 
amongst which are numerous parts of the Megatherium, from Buenos 
Ayres : these will ultimately be removed to Room VI., where many of 
the specimens formerly in these cases are now deposited. In Case V. 
are arranged the portions of the carapace and other parts of the gigan- 
tic fossil tortoise ( Megalochelys Atlas) discovered by Major Cautley, 
Bengal Artillery, in the Sewalik Hills, and formed part of the very ex- 
tensive collection presented by that gentleman to the Museum. On the 
upper shelf in Case III. are arranged the bones of various species of 
Dinornis, an extinct genus of birds, which formerly inhabited New 
Zealand-some of these bones, it will be seen, must have belonged to 
b*rds of most gigantic dimensions. In the Table Cases under the 
windows, of this and the next room are temporarily deposited some 
mammalian remains. 
Room III. 
The Wall Cases 1 to 4 are set apart for the Batrachian, the Chelonian 
and Emydosaurian reptiles, now under arrangement. To the first named 
of these orders belongs the gigantic Salamander, the subject of 
fecheuchzer’s dissertation, Homo diluvii testis et theoscopos, Tiguri , 
1726. Specimens illustrative of the Chelonians will also be placed 
in some of the Wall Cases of Room II. Among the specimens 
of the third of these orders may be specified the Crocodilian 
division, containing very interesting objects, such as specimens of 
the head, with other bones, of the gavial (or rather gharial) of 
Whitby, ( Teleosaurus Chapmanni,) which, though correctly deter- 
