Mysteries of Growth 121 



what the Turtle, the Edible Turtle, lives upon during 

 his adolescence. There be Turtle who are known to 

 live upon strange foods, but in every case they are a 

 sort of compromise between Turtle and tortoise, or even 

 Turtle, tortoise, and lizard. Of these are the Emysaura 

 serpentina, dwelling in and around Oriental lakes and 

 rivers, and living indiscriminately upon small fish, 

 reptiles, and even small birds. The Gymnopus of 

 African rivers feeds, dear creature, upon young croco- 

 diles, and evolves from that uncanny diet most delicate 

 flesh, which, albeit it is strongly flavoured with musk, 

 is most highly prized. But the Thalassians, or true 

 Sea Turtles, may eat fish alive or dead, or they may eat 

 certain kinds of weed ; all we can say is, that we do not 

 know what they eat nor how long they can fast, except 

 that from the time a Turtle has been ' turned,' say, on a 

 Jamaican beach until it has been converted into soup 

 for a Lord Mayor's banquet in London, it eats nothing, 

 and does not seem any the poorer for it. 



Being of a lethargic habit, of course there is not 

 much waste of tissue. Having assisted at the butchery 

 of many Turtles just from the sea, and examined, as 

 was always my wont, the contents of their stomachs, 

 I have never found anything identifiable therein, ex- 

 cept a few stones and cuttle-fish beaks, which latter 

 looks as if the Turtle, like nearly all other sea fish and 

 mammals, eats cuttle, but is not proof positive. And, 

 beside, the squid is so plentiful in some weed-covered 

 spots of ocean, that if the Turtle grazed upon the weed 

 he could not help eating many cuttles at the same 

 time. 



But, whatever our young friend eats, and wherever 

 he eats it, one fact emerges ; it agrees with him im- 

 mensely. He grows apace, his horny covering growing, 

 too, since he does not cast it like the Crustacea : he leads 



