136 OCCURRENCE OF TESTUDO CARETTA 



Art. VI. — Notice of the Occurrence of a living specimen of the 

 Testudo Caretta on the Coast of Devonshire. In a Letter address- 

 ed to W. Wilson Saunders, Esq., by Mr. W. Wilcox. 



East Hill, Wandsworth, 



19th Feb. 1840. 

 Sir, 



I send you an extract from a letter I have just re- 

 ceived from my friend, Mr. William Wilcox, of Biddeford, 

 North Devon, which I think will interest some of your read- 

 ers, as it announces the arrival on our coasts of a stranger, 

 which had never visited us before. 



" I should have sent you the following particulars long be- 

 fore this, but I have had no opportunity of examining the 

 subject of your enquiries until now, — he having been on his 

 travels since the date of my last to you. Indeed, the old say- 

 ing of " it's an ill wind " &c. has been decidedly correct in 

 the present case, for I believe the fortunate discoverers of this 

 amphibious stranger have derived a very considerable advan- 

 tage from showing him here, and in the adjacent towns, at 

 the small charge of 2d. each person ; thus deriving a profit 

 from the extraordinary gales of 1840. 



" I forget the precise date on what he was found, but know 

 that it was two days prior to the date of my last, if you still 

 have it to refer to. ' It was lying on the beach at the mouth 

 of the river Tor, about half a mile from the village of Inslow. 

 When I saw it, it was in a very torpid state, and about ten 

 days after it was discovered, it died. It has not been weigh- 

 ed, but has been handled by myself, and by several others 

 more conversant with such matters, and pronounced to be 

 about 200 lbs. ; and it is fair to suppose, that before its arri- 

 val into the cold waters of our climate, it must have weighed 

 considerably more. Its extreme length after death, when the 

 neck hung out from under the shell, was 4 feet 5 inches, and 

 its breadth, 2 feet 9 inches ; but this measurement was, in 

 both instances, made by running a line over the convexity of 

 the shell, which of course adds something to the actual length 

 and breadth. Having no better book to refer to than the 

 abridgement of Cuvier which came out in numbers a few years 

 ago, I speak with some diffidence when I call this animal the 

 Testudo Caretta ; but as the other species appears to have 

 fifteen scales, there can be little doubt about it, if the said 



^ Mr. Wilcox's letter is dated 30th January, and the turtle must there- 

 fore have been discovered on the 28th January. 



