The Green Turtle. 



521 



THE GREEN TURTLE. (Chelonia midas.) 



MOST of the Turtles are considered very delicate food, 

 especially the green species. Some of them are so largo 

 as to weigh from four to eight hundred pounds. Dam- 

 pier mentions an immensely large one that was caught 

 at Port Royal, in the Bay of Campeachy. It was nearly 

 six feet long, and four feet broad. A son of Captain 

 Roch, ahoy about ten years old, went in the shell, from 

 the shore to his father's ship, which was about a quarter 

 of a mile distant. 



Turtle generally ascend from the sea, and crawl on 

 the beach, for the purpose of laying their eggs (which 

 are as large sometimes as those of a common hen), some- 

 times to the number of fifty or sixty at a time. The 

 young ones, as soon as the}?- are hatched, crawl down to 

 the water. Turtles are caught, when sleeping on land, 

 by turning them on their backs ; for as they cannot turn 

 themselves over again, all means of escape is denied 

 them. The lean of the Green Turtle tastes and looks 

 like veal, without any fishy flavour. The fat is as green 



