THE EAND TOttTOISE. 
211 
from five indies to a foot and a half across the back. It has 
a small head, somewhat resembling that of a serpent : an eye 
without the upper lid ; the under eye-lid serving to cover and 
keep that organ in safety. It has a strong, scaly tail, like the 
lizard. Its head the animal can put out and hide at pleasure 
under the great penthouse of its shell : there it can remain 
secure from all attacks. As the tortoise lives wholly upon 
vegetable food, it never .seeks the encounter; yet, if any of 
the smaller animals attempt to invade its repose, they are 
sure to sutler. The tortoise, impregnably defended, is fur- 
nished with such a strength of jaw, that, though armed only 
with bony plates instead of teeth, wherever it fastens, it 
infallibly keeps its hold, until it lias taken out the piece 
Though peaceable in itself it is formed for war in another 
respect, for it seems almost endued with immortality. No- 
thing can kill it ; the depriving it of one of its members is 
but a slight injury; it will live, though deprived of the brain; 
it will live, though deprived of its head. Tortoises are com- 
monly known to exceed eighty years ; and there was one 
kept in the Archbishop of Canterbury’s garden at Lambeth, 
that was remembered above an hundred and twenty. It was 
tl t last killed by the severity of the frost, from which it had 
Hot sufficiently defended itself in its winter retreat, which 
Wa 3 a heap of sand, at the bottom of the garden. 
Though there is a circulation of blood in the tortoise, yet 
as the lungs are left out of the circulation, the animal is ca- 
pable of continuing to live without .continuing to breathe. 
|u this it resembles the bat, the serpent, the mole, and the 
'zard ; like them it takes up its dark residence for the winter, 
j ln u, at that time, when its food is no longer in plenty, it 
mippily becomes insensible to want. But "it must not be 
^'Pposed that, while it is thus at rest, it totally discontinues 
• ° breathe; on the contrary, an animal of this kind, if put 
’’Ho a close vessel, without air, will soon be stifled; though 
n <*«o readily as in a state of vigour and activity. 
1 lie eggs of all the tortoise kind, like those of birds, are 
urnished with a yelk and a white; but the shell is different, 
-’eing somewhat like those soft eggs that hens exclude 
before their time : however, this shell is much thicker and 
Wronger, and is a longer time in coining to maturity in tile 
w omb. The land tortoise lays but a few in number, if 
e°m pared to the sea turtle, who deposits from an hundred 
ufty to two hundred in a season. 
. amount of the land tortoise’s eggs we have not been 
e to learn ; but, from the scarceness of the animal, we are 
'Pt to think they cannot be very numerous. When it pre- 
' dl es t0 lay, the female scratches a slight depression in the 
