294 REPTILES OF BERMUDA. 



beach, the turtles sharing the same fate as the bird before mentioned, 

 being buried whilst depositing their eggs. Colonel Kelson was informed 

 by an eye-witness that the dimensions of the skeletons of these animals 

 were 9 feet in length by 7 in breadth." It is unfortunate that we do 

 not know the species of turtle to which these bones belonged. There 

 is room for diiference of opinion in regard to the time of the turtle's 

 interment. During storms bodies that have been thrown upon the 

 beach by the waves are sometimes buried to considerable depths by 

 the sand. A short time after the " epidemic" that was so fatal to the 

 fishes on the western coast of Florida, in the fall of 1878, I saw the 

 bodies of a number of large turtles, probably killed by the same cause, 

 floating along with the myriads of dead fishes in the edge of the Gulf 

 Stream. A storm from a particular direction might have heaped up 

 and buried that refuse of death upon the windward shore of some land, 

 perhaps to be unearthed again by geologists of the future who would 

 reckon the age of that stratum in millions of years. 



The turtles of the Bermudas are of species more abundant in the 

 West Indies and around the shores of the Caribbean and the Gulf of 

 Mexico. Consequently I have not hesitated to gather in those localities, 

 where it was more accessible, information concerning these creatures 

 for use in an account of Bermuda reptiles. There is little doubt that 

 turtles from the West Indies visit the Bermudas. The sea turtles are 

 capable of enduring such an amount of hunger and fatigue, and are 

 possessed of such powerful muscular organization, that, aided by the 

 tides and currents, they perform journeys of almost incredible length. It 

 is not a very rare occurrence that they are met with in mid-ocean. Those 

 taken on the coasts of England are supposed to have crossed the At- 

 lantic with the help of the Gulf Stream. Some heri)etologists think it 

 likely that turtles cross the Atlantic and enter the Mediterranean. The 

 Leatherback and Loggerhead are the most erratic. Though their proper 

 home may be said to extend not more than 35° on each side of the 

 equator, they are found straggling as many as 15° farther to the north 

 or south. If specimens enter the Atlantic from the other oceans it is 

 most likely to be by way of the Cape of Good Hope, where the currents 

 would seem to favor the passage. However, there is only one case in 

 which there is any doubt, that of Sphnrgis, of which specimens from 

 the diflereut oceans are so much alike that writers are still undecided 

 whether there is more than one species. Certain respects in which the 

 Pacific "Trunkbacks" differ from those of the Atlantic have induced 



