56 Zoological Society. 



sui tribus prodigium ! Olim in Indiae orientalis provinciis sep- 



tentrionalibus degebat. 

 " Colossochelys Atlas. — The first fossil remains of this colossal tor- 

 toise were discovered by us in 1835 in the tertiary strata of the Se- 

 walik Hills, or Sub-Himalayahs skirting the southern foot of the great 

 Himalayah chain. They were found associated with the remains of 

 four extinct species of Mastodon and Elephant, species of Rhinoceros, 

 Hippopotamus, Horse, Anoplotherium, Camel, Giraffe, Sivatherium, 

 and a vast number of other Mammalia, including four or five species of 

 Quadrumana. The Sewalik fauna included also a great number of 

 reptilian forms, such as crocodiles and land and freshwater tortoises. 

 Some of the crocodiles belong to extinct species, but others appear 

 to be absolutely identical with species now living in the rivers of 

 India : we allude in particular to the Crocodilus longirostris, from 

 the existing forms of which we have been unable to detect any dif- 

 ference in heads dug out of the Sewalik Hills. The same result 

 applies to the existing Ermjs tectum, now a common species found 

 in all parts of India. A very perfect fossil specimen, presenting 

 the greater part of the evidence of the dermal scutes, is undistin- 

 guishable from the living forms, not varying more from these than 

 they do among each other. Prof. Thomas Bell, the highest living 

 authority on the family, after a rigid examination, confirms the result 

 at which we had arrived, that there are no characters shown by the 

 fossil to justify its separation from the living Emys tectum. There 

 are other cases which appear to yield similar results, but the evidence 

 has not yet been sufficiently examined to justify a confident affir- 

 mation of the identity at present. 



*' The remains of the Colossochelys were collected during a period 

 of eight or nine years along a range of eighty miles of hilly country : 

 they belong in consequence to a great number of different animals, 

 varying in size and age. From the circumstances under which they 

 are met with, in crushed fragments, contained in elevated strata 

 which have undergone great disturbance, there is little room for hope 

 that a perfect shell, or anything approaching a complete skeleton, will 

 ever be found in the Sewalik Hills. It is to be mentioned, however, 

 that remains of many of the animals associated with the Colossochelys 

 in the Sewalik Hills have been discovered along the banks of the 

 Irrawaddi in Ava, and in Perim Island in the Gulf of Cambay, show- 

 ing that the same extinct fauna was formerly spread over the whole 

 continent of India. 



" This is not the place to enter upon the geological question of 

 the age of the Sewalik strata ; suffice it to say, that the general bear- 

 ing of the evidence is that they belong to the newer tertiary period. 

 But another question arises : ' Are there any indications as to when 

 this gigantic tortoise became extinct? or are there grounds for 

 entertaining the opinion that it may have descended to the human 

 period r ' Any (X-priori improbability, that an animal so hugely 

 disproportionate to existing species should have lived down to be a 

 contemporary with man, is destroyed by the fact that other species 

 of Chelonians which were coeval with the Colossochelys in the same 



