■43:2 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[November, 
THE GREAT LAND TORTOISE FROM THE ALDABRA ISLANDS. 
SQUARE WORD. 
1. Expired. 2. A pain. 3. To avoid. 4. A pavilion. 
P. Ink and Cap I Tax. 
TRANSPOSITIONS. 
(Pill the blanks with the same words transposed.) 
1 . The horse in the-wagon was very-, and 
when hitched with his-made a very good —-. 
2. The old-some-. 
3. He went to the-in his bare-. 
4. Do not-so over that-. 
5. -friend how-you-that book? M. P. 
HIDDEN SOUTHERN CITIES. 
1. It is in general eight o’clock before I get home. 2. 
In an instant, Onisrum grasped him. 3. As tall,—ah ! as 
seen in his picture, is lie ? 4. A box of steel pens, a 
colander, and other things are in that bundle. 5. Oh! 
Jack, (so neighbor Field says) your dog is dead 1 0. 
Hurra! “ U. S. tin cup maker!” Ha ! ha 1 Geo. II. F. 
pi. 
Ew hears rou tumalu owes, 
Ron tumlua mbneds rabe, 
Dan entof rof cliea hoter fowls 
Eth aspmithginzy rate. Little One. 
DIAMOND PUZZLE. 
1. vowel. 2. A vessel. 3. A city. 4. A girl. 5. Fig¬ 
ures. 6 . Consumed. 7. A vowel.—The central letters, 
horizontal and perpendicular, form a city. Nip. 
- 1 iC< —- 
ANSWERS TO PUZZLES IN THE SEPTEMBER NUMBER. 
Numerical Enigmas.— 1. Charles Dickens. 2. "Where no 
oxen are, the crib is clean. 
Concealed Books of toe Bible.— 1. Kings. 2. Hosea. 
3. Esther. 4. Amos. 5. James. 6. Acts. 7. Luke. 8. 
Matthew. 9. Romans. 
Citarades.— 1. Alfred. 2. Novelties. 
Anagrams.—1. Subscribers. 2. Misunderstood. 3. Dis¬ 
tinguishable. 4. Foretaste. 5. Overmastered, fi. Recur¬ 
rences. 7. Intolerable. 8. Reverberations. D. Rhythmical. 
10. Sentimental. 
Plantings.—1. Cabbage. 2. Sunflower. 3. Hollyhock. 
1. Cowslip. 5. Pond Lily. G. China Aster. 7. Morning- 
glory. 8. Tobacco. 
Transpositions. — 1. Volf, fowl, owl. 2. Monarch, 
march-on. 
Puzzle.— B-O-L-T. 
Cross "Word.— The vowels—a, c, I, o, and u. 
Double Acrostic.—a— lonz—o Alpha and Omega. 
L— oo —M 
P— Ol —E 
II— an —G 
A— s —A 
Pr.—People count up the faults of those who keep them 
waiting. 
Send communications intended for Aunt Sue to Box 111, 
P. <?., Brooklyn, N. Y., and not to 245 Broadway. ■ - 
Tlie Biggest Land Tortoise. 
Those who recollect the picture given in August last, 
called “More Frightened than Hurt,” will notice that 
we there called an animal a turtle which, though smaller, 
was much like the one we here call a tortoise, and will 
perhaps wonder why we use two different names for 
tilings so much alike. To save you the trouble of ask¬ 
ing, we will, before we describe the big fellow in the 
engraving, explain how this happens. The animals were 
originally called tortoises, probably from the Spanish 
word for them, tortugas ; they arc first so named in a 
book printed in 1555 ; about 50 years later, a Captain 
Goswold made a visit to New England, and in the ac¬ 
count of the voyage, it is said that they caught “ crabs, 
lobsters, and turtles.” In 1673 a writer on New England 
says that turtle and tinkle were in common use for all 
kinds of tortoises. The name turtle properly belongs to 
a dove, and when we read in tlie Scriptures, “The voice 
of the turtle is heard in our land,” it refers to the dove, 
and not to these hard-shelled reptiles. No one knows 
why these early sailors came to apply tlie name of the 
turtle, the bird that had long been regarded as tlie em¬ 
blem of affection, to such an entirely different creature as 
a tortoise, unless they did it as a sort of a joke ; we 
sometimes see a person name an especially ugly dog 
“ Beauty,” and boys are very apt to call a very large and 
overgrown schoolmate “ Infant,” and perhaps they 
thought it funny to call a great clumsy creature after 
something that was entirely its opposite, nowever it 
may be, the name turtle is now in general use; in Eng¬ 
land it is given to those tortoises only which live in tlie 
sea, but in this country it is more in use for both the 
land and sea animals than tortoise. It would be much 
better if we used turtle for the sea animals only, but it is 
not easy to make changes in a language. So when we 
tlie other day called the little fellow a turtle, we gave it 
the name by which most people call it. Now as to the 
tortoise in the picture; isn’t it a monster? You can 
readily judge of its size by comparing it with tlie man. 
There may have been larger sea-turtles, but this is the 
largest land-tortoise known. Tlie engraving is from a 
portrait published in tlie London Field, of this remark¬ 
able animal, which lias at last found a home at tlie 
Zoological Gardens, London, England. These gardens 
you must know are an immense menagerie, where there 
are large grounds and buildings for tlie finest collection 
of animals in the world. This tortoise and its smaller 
mate came from tlie Aldabra Islands, a small group 
about 180 miles north-west of Madagascar, where the 
animals were formerly very abundant, but are now 
scarce, many having been killed or carried off by whalers, 
who frequently land there for wood. This particular one 
was taken from his native island over 70 years ago, and 
carried to the Seychelles, (sec Atlas or Gazetteer), where 
he was owned for all this time by one family, and being 
tlie largest of its kind living, tlie people were very proud 
of liim. He was kept with his mate in an enclosure; the 
female laid about 40 eggs twice a year, and the young 
hatched in about 10 weeks. The “chicken-tortoises” 
were kept until about four years old, and then used for 
food. It was with difficulty that the owner could be got 
to part with the pair. This animal, tlie male, measures 
over the curve of tlie shell, 5 feet 5 in. in length,.and 
5 feet 9 in. wide; his head and neck arc 1 ft. and 9 in. 
long; lie weighs 870 pounds, and has not yet got liis 
growth! These tortoises live upon vegetables of all kinds, 
and eat grass freely; the man in the picture is giving it a 
vegetable marrow, a kind of squash used in England, 
where they can raise no better ones; an abundance of 
water must be provided for the animals to drink ; their 
native country is a very warm one, the thermometer 
never going below 70°, so these will have to be carefully 
housed. As tough as they look, they are easily injured 
by cold; it is said that 24 hours at a temperature as low 
as 50’, will kill them. There was one of these turtles a 
few years ago at Central Park, and though not so large as 
this by a great deal, it would easily walk off with a man 
on its back; it found one of our cold winters too much 
for it, and one spring it did not wake up from its winter’s 
sleep. It is estimated that this one in tlie engraving 
would be able to carry a ton, if tlie shell were strong 
enough; he is a terribly strong fellow, and can break a 
2-inch bar of iron as if it were a reed, if lie can only find 
a solid place against which to brace liis feet. On ship¬ 
board the male and female were put in separate cages, 
but the old chap was inclined to be sociable, and tried to 
break out, by raising himself upon bis hind legs and 
pressing against the roof of his cage; he would have 
succeeded, had not the gentleman having him in charge 
put a stop to his fun. now do you suppose it was done ?— 
very simply. He only greased the inside of the cage, 
which made it so slippery that the tortoise could not 
raise up on end any more. The animal is very tame, will 
feed out of tlie band, and likes much to have liis head 
and neck rubbed, and stretches them out of the shell as 
far as possible, to lie stroked. These tortoises are 
very quite and gentle, and, it is said, never bite. 
