ORDER CHELONIA. 53 



wrinkles, or transverse folds. This skin hardens by degrees, 

 and is afterwards divided into scaly plates. 



The tortoises of the fresh-water also in general deposit 

 their eggs at the end of spring in the sand, exposed to the 

 sun ; but they lay much fewer eggs than the others. The 

 land tortoises, in Sardinia, lay only five or six. Observa- 

 tions, however, on these points are far from being exact, 

 nor can we present our readers with any very positive results 

 from them. 



Nicholas Stenon has remarked, that the eggs inside the 

 tortoise are very numerous, and adhere around a membrane 

 in each of the ovaries. They are, as in hens, unequal, and 

 proportioned to the epoch of their first development ; but 

 those which are fecundated soon acquire a similarity of bulk. 

 They come out by the same aperture. 



One would imagine, from the heavy form of the tortoises, 

 and the want of vivacity in their motions, that their growth 

 was slow. Nevertheless, some facts seem to prove that it is 

 rapid. There is a story told by Valmont de Bomare, of a 

 native of St. Domingo bringing a sea tortoise to France, and 

 being obliged to increslfte the size of the vessel in which he 

 carried it, so as to prove that the animal grew a foot in the 

 space of a month. We confess that we cannot attach much 

 credit to this relation. 



There is every reason to believe that tortoises are very 

 long lived. Cetti mentions a land tortoise in Sardinia that 

 was ascertained to be sixty years of age, and which did not 

 appear to be older than those fresh taken in the country. 

 We are not in possession of sufficient data to establish the 

 difference which exists in this respect between sea, fresh- 

 water, and land tortoises. 



When marine and fresh-water tortoises have remained out 

 of the water for a certain length of time, they have consider- 

 able difficulty in replunging into it at first. This proceeds 



