30 TORTOISKS, TERRAPINS, AND TURTLES 



either for the paltry amount of oil they contain or a few 

 pounds of meat from each. An ignorant cattle-herder thinks 

 nothing of killing a tortoise one hundred years old for three 

 pounds of meat, nothing more! In the interests of science 

 and her own reputation, Ecuador should prohibit henceforth 

 the wanton and wasteful killing of those remarkable crea- 

 tures. 



With the exception of the crocodilians, the Giant Tor- 

 toises inhabiting the Galapagos Islands, and two islands in 

 the Indian Ocean, are the only survivors of the famous rep- 

 tilian age when a warm atmosphere heavily charged with 

 moisture called forth luxuriant vegetation, which nourished 

 a marvellous series of gigantic reptilian forms. Beside some 

 of these extinct creatures our largest reptiles are mere pyg- 

 mies, and to-day they are equalled in bulk only by the rhi- 

 noceros, hippopotamus, elephant and whale. The great 

 Brontosaurus, whose fossil remains were found in the bad 

 lands of Wyoming, was GO feet long, and some of the great 

 Dinosaurs, or kangaroo-like lizards, stood over 30 feet in 

 height ! 



Beside the Giant Tortoises, our Gopher Tortoise, 1 the 

 largest allied species of tortoise we possess, seems insignifi- 

 cantly small. The largest specimens weigh only 15 pounds. 

 This species is found from South Carolina to Florida, and 

 westward' to Texas. It has a very thick and strong shell, 

 and burrows in the earth of the sandy pine forests in which 

 it lives. Its shell is smooth and unmarked by bright colors, 

 and its flesh is palatable food. 



1 Tea-tu'do pol-y-phe'mus. 



