378 PLIlfT's NATUEAL HTSTORiT. [Book IX. 



able cottage ;^ and among the islands of the Red Sea, the na- 

 vigation is mostly carried on in boats formed of these shells. 

 They are to be caught in many ways ; but they are generally 

 taken when they have come up to the surface of the water 

 just before midday, a season at which they experience great 

 delight in floating on the calm surface, with the back entirely 

 out of the water. Here the delightful sensations^^ which at- 

 tend a free respiration beguile them to such a degree, and 

 render them so utterly regardless of their safety, that their 

 shell becomes dried up by the heat of the sun, so much so, in- 

 deed, that they are unable to descend, and, having to float 

 against their will, become an easy prey to the fishermen. It 

 is said also, that they leave the water at night for the purpose 

 of feeding, and eat with such avidity as to quite glut them- 

 selves : upon which, they become weaiy, and the moment 

 that, on their return in the morning, they reach the sea, 

 they fall asleep on the surface of the water. The noise 

 of their snoring betrays them, upon which the fishermen 

 stealthily swim towai^ds the animals, three to each turtle; 

 two of them, in a moment, throw it on its back, while a third 

 slings a noose around it, as it lies face upwards, and then 

 some more men, who are ready on shore, draw it to land. 



In the Phoenician Sea they are taken without the slightest 

 di£S.culty, and, at stated periods of the year, come of their own 

 accord to the river Eleutherus,^^ in immense numbers. The tur- 

 tle has no teeth, but the edge of the mouth is sharp, the upper 

 part shutting down over the lov/er just like the lid of a box. 

 In the sea it lives upon shell-fish,* and such is the strength of its 

 jaws, that it is able to break stones even; when on shore, it 

 feeds upon herbage. The female turtle lays eggs like those of 

 birds, one hundred in number ; these she buries on the dry 

 land, and covering them over with earth, pats it down with her 

 breast, and then having thus rendered it smooth, sits on them 

 during the night. The young are hatched in the course of a 



9' Cuvier says that this is evidently a gross exaggeration on the part of 

 some traveller ; and Ajasson remarks, that the very largest turtle known 

 does not exceed five feet in length, and four in breadth. In such a case, 

 the superficies of the calapash or shell would be only from twenty to 

 twenty-four feet, and this, be it remembered, in one of the very largest size. 



98 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 3, has a similar passage. 



99 See B. V. c. 17. 



^ Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 3, states to a similar effect. 



