Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1894-11-12

!. has Just returned from the
Galapagos Islands. He brings news of
the almost entire extinction of the gi
gantic tortoises for which that little
archipelago long ago became cele-
brated. There are none of them left
on any of the isles except Albemarle
and Duncan. About dozen remain
on Duncan, and very few survive on
Albemarle, high up in the mountains
The isles are crowned by lofty
mountains, and even their vegetation is
remarkable, consisting of huge cacti
and acacias. The most extraordinary of
the animals peculiar to the archipelago
were the huge black land tortoises.
From them is derived the name Gala
paSos, given by the Spaniards in the
sixteenth century. Some of these tur-
ties attained a weight of nearly 1000
pounds. Unfortunately for them, it
was soon discovered that they were
particularly good to eat, and whaling
and other vessels acquired habit of
stopping at the islands for supplies of
fresh meat in this shape. The crea-
lures served admirably for the pur-
pose, 1nasmuch as they would live on
shlpboard for many months and could
be killed when wanted for the table.
In this way 5000 turtles were taken
from Charles Island alone in one year.
1t has been reckoned that no fewer
than ten millions Of the animals have
been carried away by ships from the
archipelago since its discovery. On
the whole it IS rather surprising that
any of them are left. DIR. Baur ex-
plored Duncan Islands thoroughly and
found twenty tortoises. OF these he
took eight, sparing the rest, Four of
them he sent to Chicago, where they
are now alive at Lincoln Park the
others died. Duncan Island rises to
height of 1900 feet above the sea. AL
bemarle Island reaches 1900 feet above
the sen level. AT an elevation of $500
feet DR.. Baur got his biggest turtle,
which was four feet long, three and a
half feet high and weighed 500 pounds.
1t was strong enough to walk about
with three men riding on its back.
The archipelago consists of fifteen
small islands. The line of the equator
runs directly through it, 1t lies due
west from the coast of Ecuador, $50
miles. The supposition is that in an
ancient epoch all of the islands formed
part of continuous land mass; but
subsistence of the latter beneath the
sea left above water only the highest
peaks OF the mountains by which it
was crowned. These peaks are the
islands of to-day. Originally, it is
imagined, the tortoises were all of one
species, but the isolation of colonies
thus left to survive in localities be-
tween which there could be no com
munication resulted in the develop
ment of different characters.
One reason why the animals are so
interesting is that they are very an
cient, being survivors of the tertiary
period. They are vegetable feeders,
browsing on the young shoots of cactl
and grasses. In former times they
visited the sea periodically, but the
few survivors have abandoned the Gus
tom. Being very fond of fresh water,
they have had the habit of making long
pilgrimages to reach springs high up
on the mountains To get to them
they would travel day and night at
therate of three or four miles an hour
Thus in the course of centuries regu-
lar roads were made by them to and
from the watering places, and it was
by following these well-traveled paths
from the coast that the Spaniards first
came across the springs.
Formerly there were tortoises as
big as those of the Galapagos Islands
or the Aldabra Islands, near NADIA
gascar, but they were wiped out by
greedy man. There used to be a
species of turtle in Mauritius. Van
Neck, the discoverer of the Dodo,
found some of these, which were so
large that six men could be seated in
single shell. Another authority
states that 2O00 or 5000 of them were
sometimes seen III one drove. The
largest land turtles known to have ex-
listed at any time are dug up in fossil
shape in the Slvalill hills of ASIA.
They attained length of seven feet
and a weight of about 1000 pounds.
Plenty of fossil turtles four feet long
are discovered in Montana and Dakota
However, there is more than one
species OF marine tortoise to-day that
surpasses in size the Sivalik turtles.
The loggerhead reaches II weight of
1900 pounds and length of nine feet,
while the comparatively rare '1eather
back" grows to even greater dimen-
sions
The loggerhead is very fast and
strong swimmer He is often seen
many miles from land floating on the
waves. Unlike the other great sea
turtles, which prefer vegetable diet,
the loggerhead is carnivorous. He
has very powerful jaws and with them
easily cracks the shells of large
conchs, eating the meat Sometimes
the oil from the fat of this reptile is
smeared ON the sides OF vessels to keep
shipworms from eating the wood.
Hunting for the great sea tortoises
affords "A good living to many thou
sands of fishermen. Most important
of them, OF course, is the tortoise-shell
turtle Though it is vegetable