| Show t 1 l t t TORTOISES FROM THE GALAPAGOS ISLANDS 3 1 i ii 1 ajr animal 1 it that has ite skeleton outside of its body there are beveral specie of such creatures including lob etere crabs and the various but the larest living thing that walks inside la the giant tortoise that of the galapagos GALAPAGOS TORTOISES lok on the gnap and you will find this island group under the equator ta miles west of the chaet of ecuador to which country it belongs the name galapagos tortoise in spanish and when the western continent was there were literally acres of huge land tortoise in the islands an explorer writing of the abundance of thase inona twe in adother upon lelei Bd in 1691 says there are each plenty et land bartles in tate tele that yon see a three thousand of them in a node BO that you may so a hundred pace upon their backs one 0 those hue tortoises or bortles tort les bielda pounds of choice mat for food to they faed to swarm all car the earth in what Is called the tertiary geological pealed long before the time known to history but when on the scene he began to eat them then they disappeared rapidly the mainland of the yaw there are scarcely any aft any inhere the largest number of be ins found in the galapagos le lands the reason they salu there la that the islands are so dry and sterile few human beings can stay then tortoises belong to the jepthe family about eltty years ago charles darwin the ereal visited chatham island one of the galapagos group and made a study of the giant torto lees when he landed from hia ship and went toward the interior of the asland he waa surprised to gee broad track or roads leading from the lowlands toward the higher country the tracks were ae smooth and well laid oft ae it they had been made by people darwin who had trained himself te observe closely everything ery thing he baw what made these track he wae told they were tor tolee roads leading from the arid lowland to the mountain the tor telee Is a very thirsty creature it can live a lone time without water it wanta it however it want it badly and goes after it reffard leaa of dir tance the galapagos islands are so dry that Bom ellmes the only water on them la in springs in IN the mites inland the tor tolbee travel to these in droves or flocke darwin rode upon ones back for awhile but could not keep his balance very well darwin said it was a eight to see them following the track to and from the about the there were alfaye two lines 0 them one having had ite drink and traveling aay and the other the thirsty lanci going to abe springs he wanted to bow fast they could travel and found the distance to be from three to ight miles a day according to how long the tor tolee stopped to eat and browse on vegetable growth the creature when going anywhere esopa till it gets there so that tra velinir arid day a tor tole can make perhaps tour in twenty four hours still it does its beet if 11 eave up bc calef it cannot go fast it louft die ret not long ago an exploring party visited the galapagos i and cap lured twenty alv some of them were ahe largent larg ept ever taken and one weigh ed pound to att one of them required eight man some of them were found in the craters of extinct volcanoes they were brought to san fran aleco and placed in the natural museum one or two of them had a carapace over tour feet long A carapace ie the chell on he torto tsee back its under shell ja a plastron big creatures have a acary look ing way 0 stretching their neck up 1111 their beada are between two and three feet above the ground and it 1 eadd the biggert of them roust be year old though one gondera how anybody knows that anyway nobody ever knew a tortoise to die of old age what ship ie best tw the voyage of life |
