36 



TESTUDINATA. — CHELONIAD^. 



*' one, six feet long and four feet broad, weighing 

 betwixt eight and nine hundred pounds, was 

 caught in the harbour of Dieppe after a storm. In 

 1754, a still larger one, upwards of eight feet 

 long, was caught near Antioche, and was carried 

 to the Abbey of Long-veau, near Vannes in Bri- 

 tany; and in the year 1810, I saw a small one 

 which had been caught amongst the submarine 

 rocks near Christchurch, Hants."* 



This is the species the flesh of which is so 

 hig'hly esteemed, that it forms no unimportant 

 article of commerce. Great numbers are im- 

 ported every season for the supply of the London 

 hotels and eating-houses, and these are chiefly 

 brought from the West Indies and from Ascen- 

 sion Island. Ships proceeding on long voyages 

 through the tropical seas always endeavour to 

 recruit their supphes of fresh provisions, by call- 

 ing at the islands where these animals are known 

 to abound, and taking in a large number of living 

 Turtle, as they are readily preserved in health for 

 a long time with little trouble and without food. 



The mode of taking Turtle is thus graphi- 

 cally described by Sir J. E. Alexander, as he wit- 

 nessed it at Ascension, which island he calls the 

 head-quarters of the finest Turtle in the world : — 



" We walked do^vn to the Turtle ponds, two 

 large enclosures near the sea, which flowed in and 

 out through a breakwater of large stones. A 

 gallows was erected between the two ponds, where 

 the Turtle are slaughtered for shipping, by sus- 

 pending them by the hind flippers, and then 



* Anim. Biog. iii. 147. This instance of its occurrence has pro- 

 bably been overlooked by Mr. Bell, who has not included the species 

 in his beautiful " History of British Reptiles." 



