the most favored
spots, and here, embedded in the earth, have been found the remains of
these huge forms. The bones were first seen projecting from a bluff,
and, gradually worked out, proved to be those of a gigantic turtle that
must have measured across its back from flipper to flipper fifteen feet,
while its entire length must have been twenty feet or more. The name of
this giant is the _Protostega gigas_, a fitting forefather for the great
leather turtle of to-day. In some parts of the West the hardened shells
of other and smaller turtles are scattered about in great confusion.
Nearly all have been turned to stone, and, thus preserved, form a
monument of this past time.

A number of years ago some natives in Southern India were engaged in
making an excavation under the superintendence of an English officer,
when they discovered the remains of one of the largest fossil turtles
ever found. They had penetrated the soil for several feet, when their
implements struck against a hard substance which was at first supposed
to be solid rock, but a bar sank through it, showing it to be either
bone or wood. The earth being carefully removed, the remains of a
mound-shaped, adobe structure gradually appeared. The natives thought it
a house; but the Englishman saw that they had come upon the remains of
some gigantic creature of a past age. Every precaution was taken, and
finally the shell was fully exposed. The restoration shows it as
dome-shaped, nearly fourteen feet long, thirty-three feet in horizontal
circumference, and twenty feet in girth in a vertical direction. Its
length when alive must have been nearly thirty feet, and its feet were
as large as those of a rhinoceros. The capacity of the shell of this
ancient boatman was such that six or seven persons could have found
protection within it. Its name is _Colossochelys atlas_, a land-tortoise
of the Miocene time of geology. Its nearest representatives of to-day
are, if not so large, equally marvellous in their general appearance.
They are found in the Galapagos and Mascarene Islands, and some of them
are seven feet in length, with high domed and plated shells, presenting
the appearance of miniature houses moving along. A single shell would
form a perfect covering for a child. There are five distinct species
found here, each inhabiting a different island. Chatham Island, the home
of some, seems completely honeycombed with black truncated volcano
cones that spring up everywhere