a*J4 He Anatomical Description
P activists , who says that the Toy to/se is trad astettu. The Eye had no up-per Eye-lid, being flint only by the means of the lower, which is lifted upto the Eye-brow. Pliny reports that this is common to all oviparous Qua-drupeds.
Towards the extremity of the Jaw-bones, at the place of the Lipps,the Skinwas hard as a Horn, and keen as in other Tortoises) but these Lipps werejagged like a Saw, and it wanted not on the inside two rows of real Teeth,although Pliny affirms that Tortoifes have neither Teeth nor Tongue.
On eacli of the fore-Paws it had five Toes, or rather five Nailes; for theToes were not distinguish^ otherwise than by the Nails, these Paws havingat the end but one round Mass, from whence the Nails grew out: The hind-er-Leggs had only four. Both the fore and hind-Leggs were very short.The fore ones contained but 9 Inches in length, from the Top of the shoulderto the End of the Nails, ahd hinder Leggs eleven, from the Knee to the endof the Nails. The Nails were long, being an Inch and Half. They wererounded away both above and below, their cutt making an Oval figure;they were blunt and worn away. Their Colour was parti-coloured of black'and white, in different places, and without any order. We have observedthat Sea-Tortoifes have Claws or Nails much sharper, because that they do-not wear them in Swiming, as Land-Tortoises do in Crawling: We havefound some that had only four Nails on the fore-Feet even as on those be-hind. Mbert»s tells us, that there are all ways five on each Foot. We haveremark’d that tho the Tortoise goes slowly, yet the manner of going which ispeculiar to it,must wear out its Claws as much as in Animals which run .- Forit rubs them all against the Earth singly and one after another; so that whenit puts down one Paw, it rests at first only upon the hindermost Nail, thenon the next, and so passes to the others, even to the fore-Claw by turning itsPaw, which is round and bordered with Nails;like a Charriot, which movesits wheels, and imprints the heads of the Nails with which their Circumfe-rence is bordred, and makes them to enter into the Earth one after the other.
The Tail was large, having at its beginning six Inches Diameter. It wasfourteen Inches long, and terminated in a point like an Oxe’s Horn. Car-dan calls it a Nail, which he likens to the Spurr which is behind a CocPsFoot, and thinks that it is a Callosity engendred at the end of the Tail ofTortoises , which have been formerly cutt off: which is not probable; a Cal-lus not being able to obtain a Figure so Regular, and so exactly rounded asit was in the Tail of our Tortoise. This Tail after the Death of the Tortoisewas turned on one side, and so indexible, that it could never be made strait,what force soever was used. The same inflexibility was found in the MuCcles of the Jaws, which could not be opened otherwise than by cutting theMuseles. Aristotle has observed that of all Animals, the Tortoise is thatwhich hath most strength in his Jaws: For its Force is such, that it cuts insunder whatever it lays hold on, even to the hardest Flints. We have takennotice, in a small Tortoise , that its Head, half an hour after its being cut off,did make its Jaws to clack with a Noise like to that of Castanetts : The stif-nefsofthe Tail, equalling that of the Jaws, makes it evident that the Tor-toise has a great deal of strength in this part to strike with; and that thisHorn which it has at the end may serve instead of an offensive Weapon.
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