LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



91 



and killed as occasion requires. They are much 

 better when brought in first, than after languishing 

 in those pens for want of food. 



Apicius certainly had Darteneuf on the hip 

 when, in reply to the strictures of the latter on 

 his not having made a voyage to Britain for the 

 purpose of eating oysters, the ghost of the Roman 

 retorted with the modern epicure's short-comings 

 on his confession that, when in the flesh, he had 

 not been to the West Indies to enjoy turtle.* 



Sloane gives a somewhat startling account of 

 the effect of a turtle diet : 



They infect the blood of those feeding on them, 

 whence their shirts are yellow, and their skin and 

 face of the same color. 



Our aldermen had better have an eye to their 

 linen and complexions. Sloane starts a theory on 

 the color of his transatlantic friends, whose under- 

 garments were "stained prodigiously:" 



This, I believe, (says he,) may be one of the 

 reasons of the complexion of our European inhab- 

 itants, which is changed, in some time, from white 

 to that of a yellowish color, and which proceeds 

 from this, as well as the jaundies, which is com- 

 mon, sea air, &c. 



And then, he says, not without truth, that " all 

 sorts of Sea Tortle, except the green, are reckon'd 

 fishy and not good food." 



In his chapter " of Quadrupeds which are ovipa- 

 rous, or lay eggs," he says 



The best, or green turtle, or tortoises, come to 

 the Caymanes once a-year to lay their eggs in the 

 sand, to be hatch 'd by the sun, and at that time 

 the turtlers take them in great numbers ; at other 

 times the turtles go to the south Cayes of Cuba, 

 there to feed on the sea-grass growing under water, 

 wherefore the turtlers go thither in quest of them ; 

 and it may be, four men in a sloop may bring in 

 thirty, forty, or fifty turtles, worth seventeen or 

 eighteen shillings a-piece, more or less, according 

 to their goodness. The female with egg is reck- 

 on'd the best ; they sometimes get their loading in 

 a day, but are usually six weeks in making the 

 voyage ; they feed on turtle, bisquet bread and 

 salt ; they catch the turtle with nets of yarn larger 

 than whipcord. When they come home they put 



* Apicius. What grieves me most is, that 1 never eat 

 a Turtle. They tell me that it is absolutely the best of 

 all foods ! 



Darteneuf. Yes, I have heard the Americans say so ; 

 but I never eat any ; for in my time they were not brought 

 over to England. 



Apicius. Never eat any turtle ! How didst thou dare 

 accuse me of not going to Sandwich, to eat oysters, and 

 didst not thyself take a trip to America, to not on tur- 

 tles ? But know, wretched man, that I am informed they 

 are now as plentiful in England as sturgeon. There are 

 turtle-bouts that go regularly to London and Bristol from 

 the West Indies. I have just seen a fat alderman, who 

 died m London last week, of a surfeit he got at a turtle 

 feast in the city. 



Darteneuf. What does he say ? Does he tell you that 

 turtle is better than venison ? 



Apicius. He says there was a haunch of venison un- 

 touched, while every mouth was employed on the turtle ; 

 .that he eat till he fell asleep in his chair, and that the 

 food was so wholesome, he should not have died, if he 

 had not unluckily caught cold in his sleep, which stopped 

 his perspiration and hurt his digestion. 



Darteneuf. Alas ! how imperfect is human felicity, &c. 

 LYTTELTON'S Dialogues of the Dead. 3d edit. 1760. 



them into the sea in four square penns, or palisa- 

 doed places, where they keep aiive till there be 

 occasion to kill them, which will be very long 

 sometimes, tho' the sooner they are killed after 

 taking, they are the fatter. The callipee, or under 

 part of the breast and belly bak'd, is reckoned the 

 best piece the liver and fat are counted delicacies. 



And then Sir Hans proceeds to repeat, as he 

 has in another part of his book, besides that abova 

 quoted, the statement that those who feed much 

 upon them discharge at their pores a yellow serum, 

 and that the fat is yellow, tastes like marrow, and 

 gives the skin a yellow hue a statement which 

 will not surprise those who know that the bones 

 of pigs, in whose food madder is mixed, become 

 colored accordingly. 



Such is Sloane's account of the Tesludo marina 

 vulgaris of Ray ; Jurucua Brasiliensibus, and Tat- 

 taruga Lusitanis, of the same ; Tortue franche of 

 Rochefort, Du Tertre, and Labat. 



He then describes the Tcstudo marina Caou- 

 anna dicta, Tortue caouanne, Rochef. Labat, Ray, 

 Kaouanne of Du Tertre, calling it the Hawksbill 

 turtle, describing it as " very little differing from 

 the common sea sort, only in every part less," 

 and " not so good victuals as the former, though 

 as common in these seas." This is probably the 

 Loggerhead turtle of authors. 



Sloane then gives an account of the Testudo 

 caretla dicta, which I take to be the true hawksbill 

 turtle, and of which, he says, they "are chiefly 

 valued for their scales, commonly called tortoise 

 shell ; and are found with the others." 



Pere Labat speaks of la tortue franche, the 

 green turtle, as " la seule espece qui soit verita- 

 blement bonne a manger ;" of le caret, the hawks- 

 bill, as furnishing "ecaille de tortue:" " sa 

 chair," he adds, " n'est pas bonne a manger;" 

 he speaks of it as " d'une qualite purgative," as 

 the good father found to his cost ; and indulgence 

 in it nearly cost a reverend brother his life. 



Of la caouanne, the loggerhead, he writes with 

 more correctness than Sloane, who probably saw 

 only young specimens, that it is " plus grande que 

 les deux autres. Son ecaille ne vaut rien. Sa 

 chair n'est pas meilleure,elle est toujours maigre, 

 filasseuse, coriace, et de mauvaise odeur. On ne 

 laisse pas de la sailer pour les Negres, & qui tout 

 est bon." 



It is, .perhaps, too much to say, that the tor- 

 toiseshell of the loggerhead is entirely worthless, 

 though it is comparatively valueless ; and, in- 

 deed, that of the hawksbill is very inferior to the 

 true article produced by Chelone imbricata. 



Labat tells us, that those who go to the turtle 

 islands or other localities to fish for the green and 

 hawksbill turtles, live on the flesh of turtles only 

 for three or four months, without bread, without 

 cassava with nothing, in short, but the fat and 

 lean of those animals ; and he declares that, what- 

 ever maladies these men may have when they set 

 out upon this expedition, even if they should be 

 affected with the most loathsome, they return per- 

 fectly cured. 



