The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1897-09-27
AN ANCIENT TORTOISE.
It Is Said to be $50 Years Old, Perhaps
Older

Older.
The Spectator, London, says: Walter
Rothschild has procured for this coun-
try, and installed in the Geological
society's collection, the oldest living
creature in the world. 1t is one of the
giant tortoises of Aldabra sufficiently
remarkable for it's size, for it weighs
a quarter of a ton, but even more in
teresting from the record of it's age.
| This gives it a known life of $50 years,
with the unknown increment of it's age
previous to it's transportation to the
island of MauritiuS. 1t is, we believe,
the same tortoise which was mention
ed in the treaty between Great Britain
and France when the island of was
coded by the former country in 1910,
and has, therefore, changed it's status
four times in century and a half as
national heirloom.
When the length of the life of other
animals is contrasted with that of the
giant tortoise, it is clear that the latter
must enjoy some special advantage,
either of structure or of habit, cOnduc-
ing to longevity. One hundred years
is a good old age for an elephant, and
no other animals, except certain birds
and reptiles, reach half this span of
years. With this we may contrast the
following instances OF the length OF
years attained both by the smaller tor
tOises and the gigantic species. In the
Bishops Garden at Peterborough one
died in 1921 which was said to have
exceeded 220 years. The Lambeth tor
toise, which was introduced into the
garden by Archbishop Laud about the
year 1925, and died in 1853, owing to
some neglect of the gardener, lived in
it's last situation" 128 years. In 1888
Sir Charles COlville, Governor of the
Mauritius, sent to the Geological Gar
dens a tortoise weighing 2S5 pounds.
1t was 4 feet inches long, and had
been in the Mauritius for 81 years.
The exact period was known for this
tortoise was brought to that island
from the Seychelles in 1866 by the
Chevalier Marion du Fresno. At that
time it was full grown, SO that its real
age was probably much greater. In
the Museum of Natural History at
South Kensington are the remains of
an Aldabra tortoise of the species now
presented to the Geological Society by
Walter ROthschild which, though only
known to be so years old, weighed $40
pounds and was still growing at the
time of it's death.
The structure OF the tortoises con-
tributes a large share to their pre-emi-
nence in length of life. Their bodies
are spared the whole of that exhaust
ing process of collapse and expansion
which we call breathing The cruel
wear and tear of this incessant mo-
ton, involving work of lungs, muscles,
ribs and air-passages, unnOticed in
health, but one of the most distressing
IL A. foI
or the happy tortoise His Shell"
backpiece and breastplate alike, is as
rigid as a piece of concrete. The EAR
NOR" of an armadillo rises and falls
on his back at each respiration. That
of the tortoise being an outside skele-
tom instead of a process of the cpl
dermis,'' he is kindly saved all this
trouble. He sucks in air by making a
vacuum with his tongue, and swallows /
it like water, the reservoir instead of
a stomach being his capacious lungs. /
In addition to this enormous saving of {
the tortoise enjoys two other /
advantages. He has no
teeth to break, decay, get out Of order /
and ultimately Starve him to death, |
like those of an old horse or broken /
toothed rabbit Instead he has sharp
bony edges to his mouth which do not |
break or get out of order. And, lastly,
there is his impenetrable shell. In ref
erence to this, size is of a real advan
tage, for though small tortoises may
live for centuries in Bishops Gardens,
they have their enemies in the outer
world. Adjutant-storks swallow them
whole and digest them, shell and all,
and in California the golden eagle car
ries them up to a height and lets them
fall on the rocks, thereby smashing
their shells. as the Sicilian eagle was
trying to do when he dropped the tor
-oise or the skull of Aeschylus. But
when a tortoise grows to a weight of
200 pounds, there is no living animal
which could injure it in any way. AS it
AN swim it cannot drown: its limbs
ire so constructed as to be little liable
o fracture, and its interior is so ar
anged that it can fast for long periods,
nd has an internal reservoir of water,
hough it is naturally rather a thirsty
nimal. Charles Darwin. when among
he giant tortOiseS of the Galapagos
Stands. saw the newly-hatched young {
arried off by buZzards and carrion
lawks, but the fuIl-grown animals of
90 pounds weight seemed beyond the
nance of any danger. He surmised
hat their deaths. when such took !
lace. were only due to accident. such
s falling over precipices, and inhabi- 6
ants of the islands corroborated this s
inclusion.