LETTER VIII. 197 



a green colour, and that not of the fort, whofe 

 Shell ferves for Snuff-Boxes. They are fo com- 

 mon that they need no defcription ; and the man- 

 ner of catching them at Nevis, is as follows. 

 When a Perfon fees any of their Tracks in the 

 Sea Sands, he next Night fits up to watch, and 

 turn them upon their Backs, and then they arc 

 quite helplefs. Their Blood is cold^ and upon 

 opening one of them, I have feen, at leaft, two 

 hundred Eggs that are exadlly round, (like a 

 School-boy's Marble) taken out of it, about forty 

 of which, were enclofed in whitifh tough Skins, 

 with a water-coloured, or jellyifh fubftance round 

 the Yolk, and were ready to be laid at one time. 

 M^oods Rogers y page 276, faw at the Iflands, called 

 Tres Manas, in the Soutb Sea, a Turtle that had 

 at leaft eight hundred Eggs in its Belly, a hun- 

 dred and fifty of which were fkinned, and ready 

 for laying at once. The Turtle lays them clofe 

 to the Sea, which has there, very fmall Ebbings 

 and Flowings, and covering them lightly with 

 Sand, leaves them to be hatched by the Sun's 

 warm Beams : And this is effeded in eight and 

 forty hour's time, as I was informed by thofe 

 who made it their bufinefs to fetch them from 

 Maroon uninhabited Iflands, where they are vaft- 

 ly plentiful, and where they fee almoft every day, 

 great numbers of young ones, not broader than a 

 ^hilling, newly hatched, haftening down into the 



N 3 Sea^ 



