ther?), "nine feet two inches; the circumference round her
back and chest, seven feet nine inches; circumference of her neck, three
feet three inches; the widest part of her fore fins, eighteen inches;
her hind fins, two feet four inches in length. Her back is formed like a
round top of a trunk, with small white bumps in straight lines,
resembling the nails on a trunk; her color is variegated like the
rainbow" (probably the living skin displayed opaline reflections);
"there is no shell on her back, but a thick skin, like pump-leather."

Some years since, a gigantic specimen came ashore at Lynn beach, where
for a long time it formed an object of the greatest curiosity. It was
over eight feet in length, and weighed nearly twenty-two hundred pounds.
Instead of definite scales, as in other turtles, it had a shell
composed of six plates, which formed longitudinal ridges extending from
the head to the tail; the eye-openings were up and down, instead of
lengthwise; the bill was hooked; and so many remarkable characteristics
did it possess that many believed it to be a strange nondescript, and
not a turtle.

It would not be surprising to find that such a creature was descended
from a remarkable ancestry; and, following it up, we are led far into
the early history of the later geological times, when all life seems to
have attained its maximum growth; in fact, it was an era of giants. The
map-maker of to-day would be astonished if confronted with the
coast-line of that early time. The coast-country from Nova Scotia to
Yucatan was all under water, and what are now our plains and prairies
was a vast sea, that commenced where Texas now is and extended far to
the northwest. Even now the old coast-line can be traced. We follow it
along from Arkansas to near Fort Riley, on the Kansas River, then,
extending eastward, it traverses Minnesota, extending into the British
possessions to the head of Lake Superior, while its western shores are
lost under the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Such was this great
Cretaceous sea, in whose waters, with hundreds of other strange
creatures, lived the ancestor of our leather tortoise. The ancient sea,
however, disappeared; the land rose and surrounded it; the great forms
died and became buried in the sediment, and finally the water all
evaporated, leaving the bottom high and dry,--an ancient grave-yard,
that can be visited on horseback or by the cars.

What is now known as the State of Kansas is one of