AFRICAN TORTOISE. 
seventy. This animal was at last killed by 
the severity of a frost, from which it had not 
sufficieudy defended itself in it's usual winter 
Tetreat, a heap of sand at the bottom of the 
garden. 
From the smallness of it's brain, and the 
slowness of it's motion, it obviously appears 
to be a torpid, heavy animal, requiring rest and 
sleep. In fa6t, it reposes during the winter ; 
and, at that season, when it's food is no longer 
found in plenty, happily becomes insensible to 
the want. It sometimes buries itself two or 
three feet in the earth, having first providently 
stored it's hole with moss, grass, and leaves. 
' Like the bat, mole, serpent, and lizard, it is 
awakened from it's dormant state by the ge • 
nial return of spring ; and, in a few weeks, 
begins to transmit it's posterity, when the pro- 
creative a£l: is said to continue near a months 
The eggs are contained in the ovary, above 
the bladder, which is extremely large i and, 
before their exclusion, they are round and 
naked, with some red spots. When they are 
laid, however, they have an oval (qrm, being 
-^'-^^ V ^1? n£iij , ij.iODi smaller 
