34° Journal of 1 ravel ami Natural History 



the extinction of the great tortoise of the Siwahk hills that merits 

 our attention. 



"Are there," he asks, " any indications as to when this gigantic tortoise 

 became extinct ? or are there grounds for entertaining tlie opinion that it may 

 have descended to the human period? Any a priori improbability that an 

 animal so hugely disproportionate to existing species shoidd 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 fauna, have 

 reached to the present time, and what is true in this respect of one species in a 

 tribe may be equally tnie of every other placed under the same circumstances. 

 We have as yet no direct evidence to the point from remains dug out of recent 

 alluvial deposits, nor is there any historical testimony confirming it, but there 

 are traditions connected v/ith the cosmogonic speculations of almost all eastern 

 nations, having reference to a tortoise of such gigantic size, as to be associated 

 in their fabulous accounts with the elephant. Was this tortoise a mere creature 

 of the imagination? or was the idea of it drawn from a reality like the colos- 

 sochelys?" — (P. 560). 



In the story of Garuda, the carrier of Vishnu, the tortoise is 

 brought very prominently forward. Garuda, while pursuing his 

 journey, 



" Met his father, Kushyupa, who directed him to appease his hunger at a 

 certain lake where an elephant and tortoise were fighting. The body of the 

 tortoise was eighty miles long, the elephant one hundred and sixty." — (P. 368.) 



In the Pythagorean and Hindoo mythology, also, the world is 

 supported on the back of a tortoise. Hence Dr Falconer argues 

 that the idea of the gigantic size of the tortoise could only have 

 been founded on some basis of fact ; that is to say, that this giant 

 form was known by tradition to the fathers of the Aryan race. In 

 New Zealand there is evidence that the gigantic extinct moa lived 

 during the human period, and there is every probability of the 

 ccpiornis having co-existed with man in Madagascar. Why, there- 

 fore, should not the gigantic tortoise have lived along with man in 

 the plains below the Himmalayahs? Two crocodiles and one small 

 tortoise have survived all the great physical changes that have taken 

 place — why not this also? We cannot agree A\ith Dr Falconer 

 that there are fair grounds for this mode of argument. Could not 

 the idea of monstrous size be derived from the discovery of the 

 fossil colossochelys ? In Fcrishta's Indian History the bones of 

 giants are mentioned as occurring in the hills in which the Sutlej 

 takes its origin. It is clear, therefore, that the fossils had attracted 

 notice at an early period. It seems most probable to us that a 

 native living in the Siwalik area must be acc^uainted with the little 



