IIO THE ANIMAL KINGDOM. 



extended. From the annexed engraving (Fig. 64) you 

 will see the internal construction of the carapace, and 

 you will observe that the casing is really a portion of 

 the skeleton of the animal. Outside this carapace the 

 flat plates, known to us as tortoise-shell, are formed. 

 The true tortoise-shell is obtained from the Hawk's-bill 

 Turtle, the principal home of which is in the waters 

 around the island of Ascension. Five large plates are 

 taken from the middle of the back, four from each side, 

 and twenty-five smaller ones from around the rim. 

 These are separated by heating the whole carapace, and 

 passing a broad knife between the bone and the plates. 

 The plates can be softened in boiling water, and may 

 be joined by being pressed between hot irons. There 

 are Land Tortoises in which the carapace is very round 

 and high, and which have upright short legs, like pillars 

 cut short, with horny, hoof-like claws. These are not 

 always the little things so often sold about the streets 

 of London, for in the tropics there are some which take 

 six or eight men to lift from the ground, and which yield 

 two hundred pounds of excellent meat. Then there is the 

 Pond Tortoise, which has its feet flattened, and its cara- 

 pace covered with scales ; the River Tortoise, which has 

 a soft skin over its bony case ; and finally we have the 

 Turtle, or Sea Tortoise, in which the feet are perfectly 

 flattened, so as to become large and strong swimming 

 paddles. The turtle from which delicate meat is obtained, 

 and from which turtle soup is made, is the Green Turtle, 

 of which great numbers arc imported annually. They 

 are packed one upon the other in casks of sea-water, 

 which is changed daily. 



Lizards or Saurians.* These might almost be 

 called serpents on legs, for all their movements are 



* Satira, a lizard. 



