ALLIGATORS AND TURTLES. 257 



and which, as soon as it escaped, started off in a direct 

 line for a neighbouring stream. Dr. Davy placed his 

 stick before it to try to make the little animal deviate 

 from its course ; but it stoutly resisted the opposition, 

 and raised itself into a posture of offence, just as an older 

 animal would have done. 



Humboldt made exactly the same observation with 

 regard to young turtles, and he remarks that as the young 

 normally quit the egg at night, they cannot see the water 

 which they seek, and must therefore be guided to it by 

 discerning the direction in which the air is most humid. 

 He adds that experiments were made which consisted in 

 putting the newly hatched animals into bags, carrying 

 them to some distance from the shore, and liberating them 

 with their tails turned towards the water. It was in- 

 variably found that the young animals immediately faced 

 round, and took without hesitation the shortest way to 

 the water. 



Scarcely less remarkable than the instincts of the 

 young turtles are those of the old ones. Their watchful 

 timidity at the time of laying their eggs is thus described 

 by Bates : 



Great precautions are obliged to be taken to avoid disturb- 

 ing the sensitive turtles, who, previous to crawling ashore to 

 lay, assemble in great shoals off the sand bank. The men during 

 this time take care not to show themselves, and warn off any 

 fisherman who wishes to pass near the place. Their fires are 

 made in a deep hollow near the borders of the forest, so that the 

 smoke may not be visible. The passage of a boat through the 

 shallow waters where the animals are congregated, or the sight 

 of a man or a fire on the sand-bank, would prevent the turtles 

 from leaving the water that night to lay their eggs ; and if the 

 causes of alarm were repeated once or twice they would forsake 

 the praia for some other quieter place. ... I rose from my 

 hammock by daylight, shivering with cold a praia, on account 

 of the great radiation of heat in the night from the sand, being 

 towards the dawn the coldest place that can be found in this 

 climate. Cardozo and the men were already up watching the 

 turtles. The sentinels had erected for this purpose a stage about 

 fifty feet high, on a tall tree near their station, the ascent to which 

 was by a roughly made ladder of woody lianas. They are ena- 

 bled, by observing the turtles from this watch-tower, to ascertain 



