Turtle Races – Victorian Style!

When I first saw this illustration, I knew this must be a fake.(children riding tortoises!) But after reading the text on the following page, I do remember several large shipments of Galapagos tortoises arriving in Florida over 100 years ago. So, this could be a true illustration, at least in subject matter.  Several zoos in the United States let very young children “ride” on the backs of their Galapagos tortoises up until the early 1960s. (but not tortoise races!)