110 LECTURE IX. 



Ascension, and in many other places, innumer- 

 able multitudes of turtles arrive in the early 

 part of summer, resorting to their favourite 

 breeding-places. Some come from a great dis- 

 tance. On first nearing the shore, and gene- 

 rally on fine, calm, moonlight nights, the turtle 

 raises her head above the water, when about 

 forty yards from the beach, looks around 

 her, and should she see nothing likely to dis- 

 turb her, she sends forth a loud hissing sound, 

 and then advances slowly towards the beach, 

 crawls over it, and, when she has reached a 

 place fitted for her purpose, looks all around 

 her in silence. She then proceeds to form a 

 hole in the sand, which she does by removing 

 it from under her body with her hind flappers. 

 The sand is thus raised alternately by each 

 flapper until it is heaped up behind her. In 

 this way a hole is dug to the depth of from a 

 foot and a half to two feet, and which is done 

 in about nine minutes. The eggs are then 

 dropped into it, one by one, in regular layers, 

 to the number of a hundred and fifty to two 

 hundred. This is done in about twenty mi- 

 nutes. She then scrapes the loose sand back 

 over the eggs, and so levels and smooths the 



