434 THE FARMER AT HOME. 



South Sea, and the greatest breadth of the Atlantic Ocean ; and there 

 it has collected the greatest quantity of islands in existence. Farther, 

 it has planted in the breadth of the continents, the greatest bodies of 

 running water that are in the world, all issuing from mountains of 

 ice ; such as the Senegal and the Nile, which issue from the moun- 

 tains of the moon, in Africa ; the Amazon and Oronoko, which have 

 their sources in the Andes. Again, it is for this reason that Provi- 

 dence has multiplied in the torrid zone, and in its vicinity, lofty chains 

 of mountains covered with snow, and that it directs thither the winds 

 of the north pole and of the south pole, of which the trade winds al- 

 ways partake. 



TORTOISE. There are many species of the sea-tortoise or turtle 

 found in the West Indies and the South Seas, which are principally 

 distinguished by the peculiarities of their feet. It has^ four legs and 

 a tail, and the body is covered with so strong a shell, that several 

 men may stand on it without doing it any injury. The tortoise digs 

 round holes in the sand, in which it lays several membranaceous eg<?s. 

 Some of the species, such as the common green turtle, and the hawks- 

 bill turtle, grow to a very large size, and are not unusually four, five, 

 or six hundred pounds weight. Those who take them watch them 

 from their nests on shore, in moonlight nights ; and before they reach 

 the sea, turn them on their backs, and leave them till morning, for 

 they are utterly unable to recover their former position ; at other 

 times they hunt them in boats with a spear, striking them with it 

 through the shell ; and as there is a cord fastened to the spear, they 

 are taken much in the same manner as whales. Tortoises will live 

 after being deprived of the brain, and even their heads. The flesh 

 of many of the sea turtles is highly esteemed as food ; that of the 

 hawksbill turtle is, however, indifferent ; this species is noticed chiefly 

 as producing the tortoise-shell of commerce, so well known and used 

 for various purposes. 



TRANSPLANTING LARGE TREES. The writer having 

 made several unsuccessful attempts to transplant tulip trees and make 

 them live, resolved on the following expedient. In the autumn of 

 1849 he selected one standing in an open pasture, twenty-seven inches 

 in circumference, and about twenty-five feet in height. Around the 

 trunk, eight feet in diameter, he dug a trench fifteen inches in depth, 

 and nearly two feet in breadth. As soon as the frost rendered the 

 mass of earth within, the trench of a solid consistence, he commenced 

 digging underneath it at the outer edge. This gave the frost a better 

 opportunity to operate, till it became nearly as impenetrable as a stone. 

 This undermining of it was continued at intervals for two months, till 

 with levers, one side was lifted up and the tap root cut off all the 

 lateral roots being of course imbedded in the frozen earth. It was 

 then raised up by levers upon a sled, the whole being drawn by four 

 oxen to the place prepared for it, an eighth of a mile, and afterwards 



