TORTOISE-SHELL. 18] 
matters pertaining to luxury, was the first who cut the plates of 
the tortoise for veneering or inlaying.” The Romans imported 
large quantities of this precious article from Egypt, and under 
the reign of Augustus, the wealthy patricians used even to inlay 
the doors and columns of their palaces with it. When Alexan- 
dria was taken by Julius Czesar, the warehouses were so full ot 
tortoise-shell that the conqueror proposedto make it the principal 
ornament of his triumph. 
The use of tortoise-shell for the decoration of houses and fur- 
niture is long since out of fashion, but it is still in great request 
for the making of combs and boxes. By steeping it in boiling 
water it softens, and may then, by a strong pressure, be moulded 
into any form. When a considerable extent of surface is re- 
quired, different pieces must be joined together. This is done 
by scraping thin the edges of the pieces to be united, and laying 
them over each other while they are in the heated and softened 
state ; strong pressure being then applied, they become com- 
letely agglutinated. It is in this way that gold, silver, and 
other metals for different ornaments are made to adhere to 
tortoise-shell. 
When, at the beginning of the chapter, I mentioned that the 
lizards had entirely forsaken the ocean, I forgot that the Gala- 
pegos Islands in the South Sea, right under the Equator, 
exclusively possess a maritime animal of this kind, which, from 
its being the sole existing representative, or dwindled descend- 
ant of the giant oceanic saurians of yore, is far too interesting 
to be passed unnoticed. This lizard is extremely common 
on all the islands throughout the Archipelago. It lives ex- 
clusively on the rocky sea-beaches, and is never found,— at 
least Mr. Darwin never saw one,—even ten yards inshore. It is 
a hideous-looking creature, of a dirty black colour, stupid and 
sluggish in its movements. The usual length of a full-grown 
one is about a yard, but there are some even four feet long. 
These lizards were occasionally seen some hundred yards from 
