A TORTOISE'S LONG LIFE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 666, 6 May 1914, Page 6

A TORTOISE'S LONG LIFE.

Proverbially, slow in every v. ay, the tortoise is, perhaps, the slowest tf all animals to ilic. Stories abo.it toads found living "in closed pockets of the solid rock may, be discounted, but that tortoises live to be 200 or 300 years old lis believed. In ilie ball of the Episcopal Palace ol Peterborough there is preserved under glass the shell of a large tortoise Records proved that it sojo'.unxl at Peterborough in the t'ime of seven Bishops : Johni Thomas, 1747-57 ; Piichard Terrick, 1757 : Robert Lamb, 1764 ; John Hinchcliffe, 17G0; Spencer Madan, 1794 ; John Parsons, 1813 ; Herbert Marsh, 1819-39.

Beside the shell lies the description, which says : "It is well ascertained that this tortoise must have lived 220 years. Bishop Parsons hail remembered it for more than sixty years, and had not recognised in it any visible change. It ate all kinds of fruit and often a pint cf berries at a time, but it made ths greatest havoc among the strawberries. It knew the gardensrs well, and would always keep near them when they were gathering fruit. It could bear almost any weight ; sometimes as much as eighteen stor.e was laid upon its back. About October it used to bury itself, in a particular spot of the garden, at the depth of one or two feet, according to the severity of the approaching season, where it would remain without food until the following April, when it would emerge from its hid-ing-place."