64 CLASS REPTILIA. 



Perhaps the Indian tortoise has some analogy with those 

 which were seen by Dampier on the Gallapagos islands, and 

 which, according to him, are so plentiful there, that five or 

 six men might subsist there for many months, without any 

 other provision. Some of these tortoises weighed a hundred 

 and fifty, and two hundred pounds, and their flesh was as 

 finely flavoured as that of the most delicate chicken. It is 

 also very possible, that certain land tortoises seen by another 

 traveller, Leguat, at the Island of Rodriquez, in 1692 and 

 1693, belonged to this species. They weighed about a hun- 

 dred pounds each. This last statement was verified, in 176I> 

 by the astronomer Lacaille, who mentions that these animals 

 assemble in troops of from two to three thousand individuals, 

 so that their carapaces touch, and present a sort of pavement 

 of almost a hundred paces in extent. 



The Geometrical Tortoise {Test. Geometrica) is remark- 

 able for the elegant form of its carapace, and the yellow lines 

 agreeably disposed in rays on each of its scaly plates. It is 

 much sought after by the curious, and specimens may be 

 found in most collections. 



M. Daudin tells us, that the largest shell of this species 

 which he has seen, was ten inches six lines (French measure) 

 in length, and eight inches broad. The depth, about three 

 inches nine lines. 



The geometrical tortoise closely resembles the common in 

 its osseous covering, which is oval, very convex, especially 

 towards its hinder part : also in the scaly plates of its cara- 

 pace, surrounded with concentric striae, very numerous, and 

 similarly formed. The marginal pieces are said to be twenty- 

 four, and sometimes twenty -six in number. The number of 

 pieces composing the disk is said to vary, there being four- 

 teen sometimes instead of thirteen, as is the case with a speci- 

 men in the British Museum, figured in the Naturalist's 

 Miscellany. 



