10 
LECTURE VIL 
tember, and are about the size of a walnut. The 
general length of the shell, in the full-grown 
animal, is about six or eight inches, which latter 
measure it very seldom exceeds : the shell is of an 
extremely convex form, and is composed, as in 
most other Tortoises, of thirteen middle divisions, 
and about twenty-five marginal ones; the general 
colour is a blackish-brown, with broad and some- 
»what irregular blotches of pale yellow, varying in 
different individuals : the head is rather small than 
large ; the legs short, and the feet commonly fur^ 
nished with four strong claws on each ; some- 
times with five. This animal lives to a most extra- 
ordinary age, several well attested examples being 
adduced of its having considerably exceeded the 
period of a century. One of the most remark- 
able instances is that of a Tortoise introduced 
into the archiepiscopal garden at Lambeth, in the 
time of Archbishop Laud, and as near as can be 
collected from its history, about the year l63S, 
which continued to live there till the year 1753, 
when it was supposed to have perished rather 
from accidental neglect on the part of the gar- 
dener, than from the mere efiect of age. This 
