NATURAL HISTORY. 
71 
GALLERY. ] 
tensive series of cut and polished specimens of fossil wood, most of them 
from 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 , 
Psaronius ( 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 enigmatical 
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. 
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. 
Among the objects separately placed in Room I. are—near the 
window opposite to the Table Case containing the native silver, a 
branched variety of that metal from Kongsberg, presented by H. Heu- 
land, Esq.;—in the centre window of the East side, a large portion of 
the trunk of a coniferous tree converted into semi-opal, presented by 
Lady Chantrey;— in the window, near the Table Cases containing the 
sulphates, a very large mass of Websterite, from Newhaven, Sussex, 
presented by Dr. Mantell;—a large specimen of the brown coal of 
Iceland, called Surturbrand ;—two busts carved in jet-like bituminous 
brown coal, the one of Henry VIII., the other of his daughter the 
Lady Mary. The sculptured tortoise near the centre of this Room, 
placed on a round table inlaid with various antique marbles and other 
mineral substances, is wrought out of nephrite or jade. It was found 
on the banks of the Jumna, near the city of Allahabad, in Hindostan, 
brought to England by Lieutenant-General Kyd, and presented to the 
Museum by Thomas Wilkinson, Esq. 
The specimens in the Wall Cases of Room II. have, many of them, 
been removed to Room VI., where all the Pachydermata will ulti¬ 
mately be arranged. 
The Wall Cases in Rooms III. and IV. are destined for the osseous re¬ 
mains of the Class Reptilia; the greater part of them is already arranged. 
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 
Scheuchzer’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- 
