THE LARGEST LIVING CREATURES 145 



these were especially abundant, inhabiting nearly all the islands 

 and of a more or less different type on each. Ships used to 

 call here and take aboard these tortoises for meat, in the early 

 days sometimes as many as 700 at one time. In the early 

 eighteen hundreds the ship's company of a frigate in one day 

 brought down 200 tortoises to the beach. Even as late as 

 Darwin's visit in 1835 the staple article of food among the 

 inhabitants of Charles Island consisted of these large tortoises. 



Some of these tortoises grew to an immense size. Mr. Law- 

 son, a resident Enghshman, told Darwin he had seen several 

 so large that it required six or eight men to lift them from the 

 ground, and that some had afforded as much as 200 pounds 

 of meat. The old males are the largest, and are easily distin- 

 guished from the females by the longer tail. 



One of the large tortoises from Aldabra on being weighed 

 was found to reach 870 pounds; but this was not one of the 

 largest size. 



The largest of the pond or river turtles is the alligator 

 snapper of the Mississippi which reaches 140 pounds in weight, 

 the shell or carapace being about 3 feet long. Our common 

 snapper is much smaller, though reaching 70 pounds or more. 



The largest frog comes from the Cameroons, on the West 

 Coast of Africa. It is a rather stout short-legged frog with 

 the body 10 inches or more in length and the hind legs as 

 long again, so that when stretched out the creature measures 

 about 2 feet. There are some other frogs nearly as large. 



The largest salamander is the giant salamander of eastern 

 Asia and Japan which reaches about 5 feet. We have a very 

 similar but much smaller one with us which is usually about 

 18 inches, but occasionally as much as 2 feet long. 



Of the fishes in fresh water the largest is that giant sturgeon 

 of southeastern Europe called the "huso" which reaches 24 

 feet in length with a weight of 2000 pounds, though at the 

 present day individuals weighing as much as 1200 pounds are 

 rare. This fish has been found to attain an age of between 

 200 and 300 years. 



