TORTOISE-SHELL. 181 



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 Csesar, the warehouses were so full of 

 tortoise-shell that the conqueror proposed to 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- 

 pagos 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 



