the climb, stopping only when injured or killed. There is a purpose in these 
climbs, for the tortoise likes the springs and moist meadows of the higher 
altitudes. 
This giant is a genuine landlubber. It is almost helpless when thrown 
into the sea. Although it will float for days wherever carried by the current, 
it can swim but feebly, floating too high to be a good swimmer. William 
Beebe has found that it is adversely affected by swallowing salt water. 
During the breeding season the males seem to be in a fighting mood. 
They will push against one another, buckle up, rear up on their hind legs 
and snap at each other, but no one seems to get hurt. If a tortoise is turned 
over on its back, it will right itself by swinging its legs in one direction 
to gain momentum for the turn, and shoving its long neck against the 
ground to gain leverage as does a wrestler in distress. 
The giant tortoise attains its great bulk from a purely vegetable diet. 
It nibbles grass, moss and, strangely enough, the spiny leaves of cactus. In 
captivity it will thrive on clover, melons, pumpkins and hay, and it loves 
bananas. The tortoise has the intelligence to come up to the keeper and 
feed out of his hand when it detects a favorite food on the menu. Once 
or twice a week the captive tortoise will guzzle eight quarts of water at 
one sitting. 
These creatures are really as old as they are big. One specimen in 
the New York Zoological Gardens since 1901 is said to be over two hun¬ 
dred years old and still going strong. Many have been observed to live 
for more than one hundred and fifty years. A United States Navy report 
states that a Galapagos tortoise branded by Captain James Cook in 1773 
was still alive in 1923, but quite decrepit. A tortoise, imported from the 
Galapagos, which kept Napoleon company during his exile is still alive 
on St. Helena. 
So pleasant are the Galapagos tortoises that children sit on their backs 
and ride around. One species even has a shell conveniently shaped like a 
Spanish saddle. A favorite trick to make the tortoise begin to lumber is 
to hold an apple on a stick before its nose. To make the tortoise turn 
around, the rider simply turns the stick (and the apple) to one side, and 
the tortoise swings around in its futile effort to grab the morsel. 
Children of the Galapagos Islands bore holes in the shells of baby 
tortoises and make them draw their toy carts around. 
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