SO LECTURE VII. 



tember, and are about tl*e size of a walnut. The 

 general length of the shell, in the full-grownr 

 animal, is about six or eight inches, which latter 

 measure it very seldom exceeds : the shell is of an 

 extremely convex form, and is composed, as in 

 most other Tortoises, of thirteen middle divisions, 

 and about twenty-five marginal ones ; the general 

 colour is a blackish-brown, with broad and some- 

 what irregular blotches of pale yellow, varying in 

 different individuals : the head is rather small than 

 large ; the legs short, and the feet commonly fur- 

 nished with four strong claws on each; some- 

 times with five. This animal lives to a most extra- 

 ordinary age, several well attested examples being 

 adduced of its having considerably exceeded the 

 period of a century. One of the most remark^ 

 able instances is that of a Tortoise introduced 

 into the archiepiscopal garden at Lambeth, in the 

 time of Archbishop Laud, and as near as can be 

 collected from its history, about the year 1633, 

 which continued to live there till the year 1753, 

 when it was supposed to have perished rather 

 from accidental neglect on the part of the gar-* 

 dener, than from the mere effect of age. Tins 



