38 



THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



thrown out of his shell on the ground, where they seemed 

 to lie paralized; or at another time, with his shell inclined 

 against the walls of his chamber. Though I do not wish 

 to abate any thing from the natural talents of my favourite, 

 I cannot assign this inclination of his shell, in hours of 

 repose, to the same cause as that ascribed by the Rev. Mr. 

 White to his domesticated tortoise; he observes on this 

 subject " that though he has never read that planes inclin- 

 ed to the horizon received a greater share of warmth from 

 an autumnal sun, he inclines his shell, by tilting it against 

 the walls, to collect and admit every feeble ray." I found 

 that my animal chose this position oftener in the shade 

 than in the sunshine, and I concluded that this was done 

 to relieve the pressure from the under shell, his whole 

 weight being then supported by the wall, and the ground, 

 which acted like the abutments of an arch, of which his 

 upper shell was the curvature. 



He often betrayed a very considerable share of sagacity. 

 After making many fruitless efforts to scale the walls of his 

 prison, I detected him more than once endeavouring to 

 make his escape by undermining the foundation. Mr. 

 White observes, that his animal quickly recognized those 

 persons who bestowed upon it kind attentions, and that 

 as soon as the good old lady came in sight, who had wait- 

 ed on it for more than thirty years, it hobbled towards 

 her with awkward velocity; some such expression of gra- 

 titude and recognition I more than once noticed in my 

 little friend. Mr. T. R. Peale, who has kept a number 

 of the T. clausa in his garden, informs me, that when- 

 ever the plate on which their food was brought to them 

 was scraped with a knife, they would all scamper to the 

 usual spot, like so many chickens. One good quality 

 in my old tortoise I must not forget to notice; he would 

 not, on any occasion, be ruffled in his temper, but always 

 preserved an unvarying equanimity; still, however, he 

 maintained a superiority over one I procured for his 

 companion in captivity. I once, however, saw him de- 

 liberately take a piece of meat out of the mouth of the 

 other, who submitted to his loss with tacit acquiescence. 

 It has been said, that the males of this species have fre- 

 quent contests, butting against each other with such force, 

 as to be heard at a considerable distance; but as my animals 

 were not of a quarrelsome temper, I never witnessed any 

 such exhibitions. 



In the early part of October, he seemed to prepare him- 

 self for his long winter's sleep — he would eat nothing, 

 and I often noticed him descending into the little sub- 

 terraneous excavation I had prepared for him for this pur- 

 pose. I now weighed him with great accuracy. The 

 length of his shell was nearly six inches, and the breadth 

 just half the length ; these proportions, I suppose, gene- 



rally prevail, as I found them the same in several instances. 

 His weight was just one pound. From the observations 

 of Dr. George Ent, made, during a series of years, on the 

 weight of a land tortoise, at the time of his retiring un- 

 der ground in the autumn, compared with its weight on its 

 re-appearance in the spring — the animal was found to 

 lose not more than about a drachm in the pound; my ob- 

 servations have confirmed this statement. Very shortly 

 after losing his appetite, my amusing friend finally bu- 

 ried himself in his cavern, and in that situation remained 

 undisturbed, passing the cold winter months in one of the 

 most profound of all slumbers, till a genial vernal sun 

 " awoke his torpid life." 



I cannot close the history of my domestic tortoise with- 

 out recording his melancholy fate. The early part of the last 

 winter of his life was remarkably wet, so that the cavern 

 in which he reposed during the cold weather, became, as 

 I afterwards discovered, completely filled with water. 

 During some fine sunny weather in the latter part of the 

 succeeding April, I anxiously expected his re-appearance 

 from his protracted slumber, as usual — but I waited for 

 him in vain. One day of disappointment was succeeded 

 by another, and I became at last so anxious and impatient 

 that I dug into his cave, and, to my surprise, found it filled 

 with a solid block of ice, in the centre of which my poor 

 testudo clausa lay perfectly frozen up, like an insect in 

 a mass of amber. I carefully broke away, with a hatchet, 

 the ice in which he was encrusted. This operation was. 

 somewhat difficult, as his feet and legs were not with- 

 drawn beneath his shell. I then placed him in a cold 

 water bath, and in a few minutes I had the pleasure to ob- 

 serve that he manifested symptoms of returning life. In a 

 few minutes more he exhibited vigorous activity, and 

 walked abroad in the sunshine, with all the bouyancy of 

 former days. The weather suddenly changing to intense 

 cold, in the course of the afternoon, I brought my rescued 

 pet into the house, and kept him for some weeks in my 

 study; but I could not tempt him to taste the most deli- 

 cate morsel, and after yawning and dragging through the 

 room at intervals, he at last died about the first of June. 



That the life of the tortoise considerably exceeds the 

 period of a century, many well-attested examples might 

 be produced, and, as observations of this kind have been 

 made on the animal, when in a state of captivity, we may 

 reasonably conclude, that, if at liberty, he would reach a 

 still greater age. Major Le Conte justly remarks, that the 

 testudo clausa " has been cited as an example of longevity 

 among animals of the lower classes; but the finding of an 

 individual with a name and date engraved on its sternum, 

 proves nothing — the idle and the foolish are fond of in- 

 scribing their names every where, and may as well ante- 



