A FOSSIL TORTOISE 
toises, like the smaller ones, can crane their necks to 
the extent of a good many inches. This particular 
beast forms an excellent instance of the longevity of 
cold-blooded tortoises. At first sight there seems to 
be no particular reason why they should not be posi- 
tively immortal. They can reduce breathing, feeding, 
and the other necessities of life to their lowest terms, 
and thus exist torpidly for months together. Why 
should they not husband out life’s taper indefinitely ? 
It was asserted to be at any rate 150 years old, and 
observations have been made upon other species and 
specimens, tending to prove the fact that they can 
survive for many years. The word Galapagos is good 
Castilian for tortoise, and is analogous to Robben 
Island, so named on account of its sea lions, and Puffin 
Island on our own coasts. It was there that Darwin 
rode triumphantly upon a great reptile, though the 
task is not so easy as might seem, for, in spite of its 
apparent lethargy, the animal can perform the testu- 
dinian equivalent of shrugging its shoulders, and one 
is apt to be dislodged in the process. All these tor- 
toises, however, pale their ineffectual fires before a 
great fossil of the Siwalik hills, described to the Zoo- 
logical Society in 1844 by Dr. Falconer and Capt. 
Cautley. Colossochelys atlas, appropriately so named, 
had a carapace of over twelve feet in length, according 
to the estimate from its fragmentary remains. This 
tortoise, according to Indian cosmogony, sustained 
an elephant, and that elephant in its turn the world. 
That it could have sustained an elephant upon its 
broad back is quite probable. These legends seem to 
show that the tortoise, or one like it, lived down to 
human times. In any case, the remains of extinct and 
giant tortoises are found in many places, but the only 
living giants come from the localities which we have 
mentioned. 
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