NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 275 



The supply, occasionally, must have been more than 

 equal to the demand, if we may believe Yelleius Pater- 

 culus, who relates that, when Caesar took Alexandria, the 

 magazines were so rich in tortoiseshell, that he proposed 

 to make that highly-prized ornament a principal feature 

 in his African triumph. 



The first man that invented the cutting of tortoise shells into 

 thin plates, therewith to seele beds, tables, cupbords, and presses, 

 was Carbilius Pollio, a man very ingenious and inventive of such 

 toies, serving to riot and superfluous expense.* 



The carapace enthe was frequently used for a cradle 

 and a bath for young children ; nor did the warrior dis- 

 dain it as a shield. 



The size to which some of the species grew was enor- 



Fundit humo facilem victum justissima tellus. 

 Si non ingentem foribus domus alta superbis 

 Mane salutantum totis vomit sedibus undam ; 

 Nee varios inhiant pulchrd testudine pastes, 

 Inlusasque auro vestes, Ephp'eiaque sera ; 

 Alba neque Assyrio fucatur lana veneno. 

 Nee casia liqmdi corrumpitur usus olivi : * 



At secura quies, et nescia fallere vita. 

 Dives opum variarum, at latis otia fundis, 

 Speluncse, vivique lacus, at frigida Tempe, 

 Mugitusque bourn, moUesque sub arbore somni 

 Non absunt. 

 * Holland's Pliny. And again, — ' Cornelius Nepos \^Titeth, 

 that before the victory of S} 11a, who defeated Marius, two dining 

 tables, and no more there were throughout Rome, all of silver. 

 Fenestella saith, that in his time (and he died the last yere of the 

 reigne of Tyberius Csesar the Emperor) men began to bestow silver 

 upon their cupboords and side livery tables : and even then also 

 (by his saying) tortoise worke came in request, and was much 

 used. Howbeit, somewhat before his dales, he writeth, that those 

 cupboords were of wood, round and solid of one entire piece, and 

 not much bigger than the tables whereupon men eat their meat ; 

 but when hee was a young boy, they were fom-e square, and of 

 many peeces joyned together ; and then they began to be covered 

 over with thin boords or paiuels, either of maple or citron wood.' 

 So that, after all, this is not the only aye of veneer. 



