17 2 EXTINCT MONSTERS. 



is improbable that an entire uncrushed specimen will ever be 

 found. When the first fragments, in huge shapeless masses, were 

 found by the discoverers, they were utterly at a loss what to make 

 of them, and for many months could do nothing more than 

 look upon them in bewildered and nearly hopeless admiration. 

 But no sooner was the clue found to a single specimen than 

 every fragment moved into its place so as to form a consistent 

 whole. 



It is not possible at present to say, with any degree of certainty, 

 whether this colossal tortoise survived into the human period ; 

 but at least there is no evidence against the idea, and Dr. 

 Falconer shows it is quite possible that the frequent allusions 

 to a gigantic tortoise in Hindoo and other mythologies are to be 

 explained on the supposition that the creature was seen by the 

 men of a prehistoric age. Other species of tortoises and turtles 

 that were coeval with the Colossochelys have lived on to the 

 present day. So have other reptiles, for some of the crocodiles 

 now living in India appear to be identical with the forms dug out 

 of the Sivalik Hills. In the absence of direct geological evidence, 

 we must fall back on traditions. 



Now, there are traditions connected with the speculations of 

 nearly all Eastern nations with regard to the world (cosmogonies) 

 that refer to a tortoise of such gigantic size as to be associated 

 with the elephant, in their fables. The question therefore arises 

 — Was this tortoise a creature of the imagination, or was the idea 

 of it drawn from a living reality? Besides a tradition current 

 among the Iroquois Indians of North America, referring to the 

 important share which the tortoise had in the formation of the 

 earth, there are several cases in ancient history bearing on 

 the same point. Thus, we find in the Pythagorean doctrine 

 the infant world represented as having been placed on the back 

 of an elephant, which was sustained on a huge tortoise. Greek 

 and Hindoo mythologies were undoubtedly related to each other, 

 and accordingly we find, in the Hindoo accounts of the second 



