1837.] Geometric Tortoises. 689 



Indian speech must be rather sought in the hills and in the peninsula ; 

 in the plains and populous districts of the north the evidences of 

 their existence are necessarily smothered by the predominance of the 

 refined and durable languages of the court, of religion, and of the 

 educated classes. A writer in the Foreign Quarterly has lately been 

 bold enough to revive the theory of Sanskrit being merely a derivative 

 from the Greek through the intervention of the Zend, and subsequent 

 to the Macedonian invasion ! The Agathocles' coin ought to answer all 

 such speculations. The Pali of that day along with its appropriate 

 symbols is proved to have held the same precise derivative relation to 

 the Sanskrit as it does now — for the records on which we argue are not 

 modern, but of that very period. All we still want is to find some 

 graven Brahmanical record of the same period to shew the character 

 then in use for writing Sanskrit ; and to add ocular demonstration to 

 the proofs afforded by the profound researches of philologists as to 

 the genuine antiquity of the venerable depository of the Vedas. — Ed. 



VI. — Geometric Tortoises, " Testudo Geometrica." By Lieut. T. Hutton/ 

 37 th Native Infantry. 



Africa being a3 yet the only recorded habitat of the Geometric 

 Tortoise, I have thought it advisable to make known the existence of 

 these animals in the hilly tracts of Met/war, and the adjoining districts, 

 where they are found in the high grassy janglas, skirting the base of 

 the hills, and are by no means of rare occurrence. 



I usually employed a few Bheels to seek for them, who thought 

 themselves well paid with a pint of brandy for a pair of Tortoises. 

 Although not uncommon, they are nevertheless not easily procured, 

 owing to their color and appearance being so blended with the rocky 

 nature of the ground, as to render it difficult to distinguish them from 

 surrounding objects ; added to which, they remain in concealment, 

 beneath shrubs or tufts of grass during the heat of the day. 



The Bheels, however, are expert in tracking them through loose 

 soils, and having discovered a foot print in the sand of a nullah, or 

 the dust of the grass plains, they generally succeed in capturing the 

 animal, by patiently following the traces it has left. 



It is during the rainy season that they are in the greatest activity 

 and wander about all day, feeding and coupling. At the approach of 

 the cold weather they select a sheltered spot and conceal themselves 

 by thrusting their shell into some thick tuft of grass and bushes, the 

 better to protect them from the cold, remaining thus in a sort of 



