tire length, as in walking, when head and tail were
protruded, could not have been much less than thirty feet. The
discoverers of this interesting relic, Dr Falconer and Major Cauntley,
have discussed the question of its probable cessation of existence with
some care; and they have come to the conclusion "that there are fair
grounds for entertaining the belief, as probable, that the
_Colossochelys Atlas_ may have lived down to an early period of the
human epoch, and become extinct since." This they infer on two grounds:
first, from the fact that, in the same strata, which are not limited to
the Sewalik hills, but extend, with the remains of this immense
tortoise, all over the great Indian area, from Ava to the Gulf of
Cambay, other tortoises, crocodiles, &c., which were contemporary with
the _Colossochelys_, have survived to the present time; and, secondly,
from mythologic and cosmogonic traditions of many eastern nations,
having reference to a tortoise of such gigantic size as to be associated
in the current fables with an elephant.[7]

Elian, the Greek naturalist, quoting Megasthenes, a still older
authority, who resided several years in India, and who collected a good
deal of interesting information concerning the country, reports that in
the sea around Ceylon there were found tortoises of such enormous
dimensions that huts were made of their shells, each shell being fifteen
cubits (or twenty-two feet) long; so that several people were able to
find comfortable shelter under it from the rain and sun.[8] And both
Strabo and Pliny[9] assert that the Chelonophagi, who inhabited the
shores of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, converted the enormous
shells of the turtles which they caught into roofs for their houses and
boats for their little voyages. It has been suggested that the
_Colossochelys_ may have given origin to these statements; but I rather
think the great sea-turtles of the genus _Chelone_ are referred to, the
convex shells of which are known in our own day to reach to a length of
eight feet or upwards.

The circumstances attending the discovery of the rhinoceros and elephant
of Siberia are very curious and interesting; since of them we have not
the fossilised skeletons, but the carcases preserved in a fresh state,
as if just dead, with (in one case) the flesh upon the bones in an
eatable state, and actually forming the food of dogs and wolves, the
skin entire, and covered with fur, and even the eyes so perfe