26o DENIZENS OF THE DESERT 



ing hiss. Securely encased in their shells, like 

 non-resisting Quakers they wait in quietness 

 and find safety in passive resistance. 



To the Piute and Shoshone Indians inhabit- 

 ing the Great Basin the economic importance 

 of this dry-land "turtle" was considerable. 

 These native people, who knew no natural 

 repugnance to the use of lizards and snakes as 

 food, used tortoises freely, as the great numbers 

 of "shells" found around their old campoodies 

 show. 



To-day many of them are caught by the 

 whites and cooked up into soups and stews, and 

 one may occasionally find the savory meat 

 offered on the tables of small-town restaurants 

 of the desert. 



In so far as I can learn these remarkable 

 chelonians have, besides man, few enemies. 

 The foolish coyotes, hunger-bent, sometimes 

 make dolts of themselves by attempting to get 

 inside the shell. Many a tortoise bears on his 

 shell the toothmark-record of an encounter 

 with these wild dogs of the deserts. I am not 

 quite so sure but that a coyote might make a 

 wretched meal off a soft-shelled baby tortoise, 



