The Colossochelys atlas,[45] or gigantic fossil tortoise of India, supplies a fit representative of the tortoise which sustained the elephant and the infant world in the fables of the Pythagorean and Hindoo cosmogonies. It is highly interesting to trace back to its probable source a matter of belief like this, so widely connected with the speculations of an early period of the human race. [45] Greek, _Colossos_, Colossus, and _chelus_, tortoise. Atlas was supposed to sustain the world on his shoulders. The carapace, or buckler, of the shell of this crawling monster is similar in general form to the large land-tortoises of the present day.[46] The shell is estimated to have been at least six feet long. The limbs were probably similar to those of a modern land-tortoise, and the limb-bones are of huge size--a single humerus, or arm-bone, measuring 28 inches. Probably the foot was as large as that of a rhinoceros. A restored cast of a young individual stands at the West end of the fossil reptile gallery, South Kensington (Stand Z on plan). Length of the shield, 10 feet[47] (see Fig. 48). [46] Giant tortoises of the present day live on islands--where they have escaped competition with large carnivora and other foes--such as the Aldabra group, N.W. of Madagascar, in the Mascarenes, which comprise Mauritius and Rodriguez; and the Galapagos, or "Tortoise Islands," off the coast of South America. When Mr. Darwin visited the latter islands he saw the relics, as it were, of a family of huge tortoises, which lived there in abundance a few years before, and was able to verify many interesting facts which had been recorded by Porter in 1813, who stated that some of those captured by him weighed from 300 to 400 lbs., and that on one island they were 5-1/2 feet long. Those of one island differed from those of another. Some had long necks. After Mr. Darwin's visit the process of extermination went on. At the present time it is most probable that the gigantic tortoises are very rare where formerly they were so abundant. One of these great tortoises is that of Abingdon Island, in the Galapagos Archipelago, of which there is a fine stuffed specimen in the Natural History Museum (Reptile Gallery). It has a very long neck, and a small flat-topped head with a short snout. It weighed originally 201 lbs. The Indian tortoises of the present day are not of large size. See the fine specimens in the Natural History Museum--Reptile Gallery (left wing of the building). [47] Dr. Falconer's estimate was much too great, so that this model is too large. Mr. Lydekker prefers to drop the generic term Colossochelys, and call it Testudo Atlas. In length it was only one-third greater than Testudo elephantina of the Galapagos Islands.