9 o OSBECK'S VOYAGE. 



likewife fome fcales on the fides : the eyes are 

 large, and on one of their fides the raw flefli 

 appeared ; the fkin of the eyes is as it were 

 covered with feveral red points or fcales : on 

 the fore-foot, quite at the paw, is a round 

 fcale like a coin : the fhield which covers the 

 back is frequently above four feet long, and 

 of a proportionable breadth. Thefe tortoifes 

 weigh from 500 to 700 pounds of Sivedifb 

 grocery weight. Their flefh being boiled 

 fwells exceedingly, and for this reafon a tor- 

 toife from Afcenfion I/land is reckoned equal to 

 an ox, and fufFicient to make a meal for 130 

 men. The catching of tortoifes is a great 

 faving to the company, as they can keep them 

 alive wjthout food for five or fix weeks toge- 

 ther f , if they are only watered with fea- 

 water four or five times every day, fometimes 

 laid on the back, and fometimes on the belly 

 (in which latter cafe fomething is put under 

 their neck), and if guarded from rain and 

 heat. When they are to be killed, the head 

 is firft fevered from the body, and the mell is 

 next cut off. The flefh is grey, and the 

 blacker it is, the fatter it is reckoned. When 



s In 1 7 ££ a great tortoife was brought alive to Gotten' 

 hurgb, but was killed there foon after its arrival, 



the 



