Frikkie took to studying da Silva.. He borrowed books from the library and announced that he was a male Leopard tortoise, the biggest kind you could get in Africa, and a very large speciman at that. Da Silva was 600 cms from end to end of his shell and too heavy for Frikkie to pick up. He polished his yellow and brown patterned carapace with furniture wax so that it gleamed, and made him a strong wooden box in which to hibernate. He even did a school project on da Silva, for which he got an A, with the remark "Very well observed" at the bottom of it.