178 Proceedings of the Asiatic Society. [No. 2. 



aggeration with which they are invested. We have the elephant, then as 

 at present, the largest of land animals, a fit supporter of the infant world ; 

 in the serpent Basokee, used at the churning of the ocean, we may trace a 

 representative of the gigantic Indian python ; and in the bird-god Gam- 

 da, with all his attributes, we may detect the gigantic crane of India 

 (Ciconia gigantea) as supplying the origin. In like manner, the Colosso- 

 chelys would supply a consistent representative of the tortoise that sus- 

 tained the elephant and the world together. But if we are to suppose that 

 the mythological notion of the tortoise was derived, as a symbol of strength, 

 from some one of those small species which are now known to exist in In- 

 dia, this congruity of ideas, this harmony of representation would be at 

 once violated ; it would be as legitimate to talk of a rat or a mouse con- 

 tending with an elephant, as of any known Indian tortoise to do the same 

 in the case of the fable of Garuda. The fancy would scout the image as in- 

 congruous, and the weight even of mythology would not be strong enough 

 to enforce it on the faith of the mo3t superstitious epoch of the human 

 race. 



" But the indications of mythological tradition are in every case vague 

 and uncertain, and in the present instance we would not lay undue weight 

 on the tendencies of such as concern the tortoise. We have entered so 

 much at length on them on this occasion, from the important bearing 

 which the point has on a very remarkable matter of early belief entertain- 

 ed by a large portion of the human race. The result at which we have 

 arrived is, that there are fair grounds for entertaining the belief as pro- 

 bable that the Colossochelys Atlas may have lived down to an early period 

 of the human epoch and become extinct since : — 1st, from the fact that 

 other Chelonian species and crocodiles, contemporaries of the Colossoche- 

 lys in the Sewalik fauna, have survived ; 2nd, from the indications, of 

 mythology in regard to a gigantic species of tortoise in India." 



Report of Curator, Zoological Department, for February Meeting, 1855. 



Sir, — The following specimens have been added to the Museum since 

 the preparation of my last Report. 



1. From Capt. T. C. Blagrave, A small collection, procured (as there 

 is reason to believe) in the Alpine Punjab. Of mammalia, are sent one 

 Bat, Nycticigus luteus, and skulls of Gazella cg>ra. And of birds, 

 the following species, including one novelty. — Garrulax lineatus, Parus 

 cinereus, Passer indicus (albinoid young), P. cinnamomeus, Hesperi- 



