T72 
EXTINCT MONSTERS. 
is improbable that an entire uncrushed specimen will ever be 
found. When the first fragments, in huge shapeless masses, were 
found by the discoverers, they were utterly at a loss what to make 
of them, and for many months could do nothing more than 
look upon them in bewildered and nearly hopeless admiration. 
But no sooner was the clue found to a single specimen than 
every fragment moved into its place so as to form a consistent 
whole. 
It is not possible at present to say, with any degree of certainty, 
whether this colossal tortoise survived into the human period ; 
but at least there is no evidence against the idea, and Dr. 
Falconer shows it is quite possible that the frequent allusions 
to a gigantic tortoise in Hindoo and other mythologies are to be 
explained on the supposition that the creature was seen by the 
men of a prehistoric age. Other species of tortoises and turtles 
that were coeval with the Colossochelys have lived on to the 
present day. So have other reptiles, for some of the crocodiles 
now living in India appear to be identical with the forms dug out 
of the Sivalik Hills. In the absence of direct geological evidence, 
we must fall back on traditions. 
Now, there are traditions connected with the speculations of 
nearly all Eastern nations with regard to the world (cosmogonies) 
that refer to a tortoise of such gigantic size as to be associated 
with the elephanti in their fables. The question therefore arises 
— Was this tortoise a creature of the imagination, or was the idea 
of it drawn from a living reality? Besides a tradition current 
among the Iroquois Indians of North America, referring to the 
important share which the tortoise had in the formation of the 
earth, there are several cases in ancient history bearing on 
the same point. Thus, we find in the Pythagorean doctrine 
the infant world represented as having been placed on the back 
of an elephant, which was sustained on a huge tortoise. Greek 
and Hindoo mythologies were undoubtedly related to each other, 
and accordingly we find, in the Hindoo accounts of the second 
