The record-union., 1897-08-30
ALDABRA'S GIANT TORTOISE.
ANIMAL MENTIONED IN AN IN
TERNATIONAL TREATY.
1t Is Known to be One Hundred
and Fifty Years Old, and May
be Much Older.

Walter Rothschild has procured for
this country, and installed in the Zoo
logical Society's collection, the Oldest
living creature in the world. Ii IS
one of the giant tortoises of Aldabra,
sufficiently remarkable Tor its size, Tor
it weighs a quarter Of ton, but even
more interesting from the record OF its
age. This gives it a known life OF lou
years, with the unknown increment Oh
its age previous 10 its transportation TO
the island of Mauritius. 1t is, we be-
1ieve, the same tsytoise which was men
toned in the treaty between Great Br1-
tain and France when the island was
ceded by the former country in 1910,
and has, therefore, changed its status
four times in a century and a half as
q national heirloom
When the length of the life of other
animals is contrasted with that of the
giant tortoise, it is clear that the lat
ter must enjoy some special advan-
tage, either of structure or Of habit,
conducting 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
tortoises and the gigantic species. In
the Bishops Garden at Peterborough
one died in 1921 which was said to have
exceeded DO years. The Lambeth tor
toise, which was introduced into the
garden by Archbishop Laud about the
year 1926, and died in 1853, owing 20
some neglect Of the gardener, lived IN
its last situation" 12S years. In 1888
Sir Charles Colville, Governor of the
Mauritus, sent to the Geological Gar
dens a tortoise weighing 2S5 pounds. IT
was four feet four inches long, and
had been in the Mauritius for sixty
seven 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 prob
ably 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 eighty
y
still growing at the time of it's death
WHY THEY LIVE SO LONG.
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 exhausting
process of collapse and expansion which
we call breathing The cruel wear
and tear of this incessant motion, in
volving work of lungs, muscles, ribs
and afr-passages, unnoticed in health,
but one of the most distressing facts
revealed by illness, does not fall on the
happy tortoise. His Shell" back
piece and breastplate alike, is as rigid
as a piece of concrete. The 'sarmor"
of an armadillo rises and falls on his
back at each respiration That of the
tortoise being an outside skeleton in
stead of a process of the epfdermis,"
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 be-
ing his capacious lungs. In addition
to this enormous saving of energy, the
tortoise enjoys two other structural ad-
Vantages. 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. In
stead he has sharp, horny edges to his
mouth which do not break or get out
of order. And, lastly, there is his i'm
Qenetrable She'll In reference to this,
size is of a real advantage, for though
small tortoises may live for centuries
an 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 carries them up to
hight and let's them fall on the rocks,
thereby smashing their shells, as the
Sicilian eagle was trying to do when he
suropped the tortoise on the skull of
Aeschylus. But when tortoise grows
TO weight of 200 pounds, there is no
living animal which could injure it in
any way. As it can swim it cannot
drown; its limbs are so constructed as
TO be little liable to fracture and its
1nterior is so arranged that it can fast
for long periods, and has an internal
reservoir of water, though 1t is natur-
ally rather a thirsty animal. Charles
Darwin, when among the giant tor
Foises of the Galapagos Islands, saw the
newly hatched young carried off by
buzzards and carrion hawks, but the
full-grown animals of 200 pounds
weight seemed beyond the chance of
any danger. He surmised that their
deaths, when such took place, were only
due TO accident. such as falling over
precipices and inhabitants of the ISL
Rnds corToborated this conclusion.
A PLACID HABIT.
Being built to last the tortoise's
habits and character have to conform