It is really amazing how links can travel!

Walter in Denver (that's Walter Schlomer, of course -- a longtime favorite of mine, and one of my very first links) recently thought highly enough of my piece on Rosalie Bertell to link to it in his blog.

The next thing that happened was that Dave Kopel -- not only a distinguished author and scholar but a "real print" columnist writing in the Rocky Mountain News -- linked to Walter (justly called the best blogger in Colorado), and then to Classical Values (because of Walter's link to this blog)!

I am of course honored that two journalists of such high caliber would link to me, and I welcome any new visitors from Colorado who might have happened by.

While I'm not much of an expert on Colorado, as an amateur herpetologist it often interested me that Colorado (and the other Rocky Mountain states) represents the Western range limit for many turtles. Most water turtle species are found only East of the Rockies, and the Continental Divide has provided a barrier of sorts (with the eastward flow of water limiting their migration).

Slowly, though, their range is bound to inch West.

Turtles, of course, cannot take advantage of liberalized immigration laws -- or (unlike blogs) the Internet....

SPEAKING OF TURTLES: Despite the existence of the mighty Rocky Mountains as a sort of natural Maginot Line, the aggressive and ill-tempered Snapping Turtle has already pushed its range Westward -- some having made it as far as California. (Where fruitless efforts to deport them are vigorously underway.)

But meanwhile the poor Bog Turtle is seriously threatened by its ever-shrinking East Coast habitat. (If only they could rename it the Blog Turtle! Maybe then it could change with the times!)