BERMUDA BIOLOGICAL STATION. 4" 



had been a heavy shower during the preceding night, which had re- 

 sulted in temporary pools of fresh water in a few places, and it' was in 

 one of these pools near Spittal Pond that a half dozen or more pairs 

 were found. A quantity of the spawn was secured and a series of 

 eggs preserved. 



Reptiles have at present very few representatives. There are no 

 snakes, and the possible importation of them is carefully guarded 

 against. The only land reptile is the Bermuda lizard (Eumices 

 longirostris), which is not found elsewhere and is probably indigenous. 

 Of turtles, four species, none of which is peculiar to Bermuda, are 

 known to frequent the islands: — the green turtle (Chelonia my das), 

 the hawk bill (Erctmochelys imbricata), the logger-head (Thalas- 

 sochelys caouana) and the trunk or leather turtle (Sphargis coriacea). 

 The green turtle is still caught in nets in small numbers, but the 

 others are found only occasionally. From the accounts of several of 

 the earlv writers on Bermuda it is evident that some of the turtles 

 (perhaps the green turtle) were once very abundant. Sylvanus Jour- 

 dan, writing of the shipwreck of Sir George Somers in 1609, says: 



There are also great store of Tortoises (which some call turtles), and those 

 so great, that I have seene a bushell of egges in one of their bellies, which are 

 sweeter than any Henne egge: and the Tortoise itselfe is all very goode meate. 

 and yieldeth great store of oyle, which is as sweete as any butter: and one 

 of them will suffice fifty men a meale at least: and of these hath beene taken 

 great store, with two boates at the least forty in one day . . . We carried with 

 vs also a good portion of Tortoise oyle, which either for frying or baking did 

 vs very great pleasure, it being very sweete nourishing and wholesome. 



An early account of their egg-laying, by Peter Martyr, is given in these 



words : 



At such time as the heate of Nature moueth them to generation, they 

 come forthe of the Sea, and making a deepe pit in the sand, they lay three or 

 foure hundred Egges therein: when they haue thus emptied their bag of Con- 

 ception, they put as much of the same againe into the Pit as may satisfie to 

 couer their Egges, and so resorte againe vnto the Sea, nothing carefull of their 

 succession. At the day appointed of Nature to the procreation of these crea- 

 tures there creepeth out a multitude of Tortoyses, as it were Pismyers out of 

 an anthill, and this only by the heate of the Sunne, without any helpe of their 

 Parents: their Egges are as big as Geese Egges, and themselues growne to 

 perfection, bigger than great round Targets. 



It is, however, the richness of the life in the sea — in marked con- 

 trast to the paucity of that on land — which is the chief source of at- 

 traction to the zoologist. If the gardens on the land require much 

 attention and are the reflection of man's assiduity in transplanting 

 the products of one country to the soil of another, the gardens of the 

 sea demand no such care, and man has had little or nothing to do 

 with shaping the wonderful display of marine life that carpets the 

 floors of the broad lagoons and the reefs of the Bermuda plateau. 



( To he concluded, j 



