522 



Reptiles. 



as grass, and very sweet. The introduction of Turtle as 

 an article of food into England, appears to have taken 

 place within the last eighty or ninety years. They are 

 common in Jamaica, and in most of the islands of the 

 East and West Indies. Green Turtles are sometimes 

 caught on the shores of Europe, driven thither by stress 

 of weather. In the year 1752, one, six feet long and 

 four feet broad, weighing between eight and nine hun- 

 dred pounds, was caught in the harbour of Dieppe, after 

 a storm. In 1754, a still larger one, upwards of eight 

 feet long, was caught near Antioche, and was carried to 

 the Abbey of Longveau, near Vannes, in Brittany ; and 

 in the year 1810, a small one was caught amongst the 

 submarine rocks near Christchurch, in Hampshire. 



The reader will remember how delighted Eobinson 

 Crusoe was to find a large Turtle which, he says, con- 

 tained three score eggs. Behold him dragging it home. 



