TWICE A CENTENARIAN.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1566, 9 October 1912, Page 2

TWICE A CENTENARIAN.

At- the age of. 200, or thereabouts, a' > tortoise, belonging to the Duke of Beau- ] fort, decided to take a summer holiday. I It was missed on July 14 from the i duke's Forest of Wentwood, near Chep- S stow, Monmouthshire, and has just been ! found at Newport, in the same county, j The'tortoise had walked lo the outskirts ! of or nine miles—and then' \ had been picked up and carried into the ( town. \ Tho ago of the duke's tortoise is given jj "approximately" by the forest rangers, £ but it has hibernated-under a particular j rock in tho forest for 30 years, and its ! great age is inferred from its sizn and weight. It is 18 inches long and weighs' ( 101b. There is-nothing unusual in such • longevity; a patriarch in the "Zoo," t known as -Msthuselah, died three years ago. at the reputed age of 250. ' ? Gilbert White spoke of the tortoise's many ! years as "a waste of longevity." The 'famous old' Sussex tortoi?o in tho "Nat- > ural History of Selborne," used to go to ! bed at 1 and never rose (ill late in the i morning, while it rested during and after \ every shower. ' NIGHT. . ■ . I Night presses close without, ' Afld strikes tho door and, breathes upon the pane. I How am I set about ' With void and darkness and a 6obbing rain, . '; With winds that shake the casement as | they pass, ■ jj And haunting eyes that peer into the a glass. " ' Night presses closc'around; I hear her hand upon the creaking gale; "~ She lurks'with little sound. Knowing me captive, and content to wait. I Shall I confront the doom:—go forth to her '■'..' ] Along the roads where blackness is astir? In vain 1 seek to win J Shelter and comfort from (he flickering flanie; • -I feel her creeping in— 4 She'takes mo by the hand and speaks my E name. ' * Night is abroad o'er valley, field, and hill— And night williin my heart sits dumblv E chill,- ■■ - . " ■ "I —Arthur L; Salmon, in the "Queen." I