96 



LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



sea-tortoises, must be reminded that the sphargis, 

 as its name implies,* is so far from being mute, 

 that it utters sounds very near akin to the bellow- 

 ings of distress when entangled in the fatal net, 

 OT oppressed with wounds. The carapace and 

 plastron, with its longitudinal, string-like lines or 

 ribs, may have suggested the lyrical name accord- 

 ed to the species. We have said enough to put 

 those hungry gentlemen on their guard who may 

 feel disposed to consign it to the tureen. It at- 

 tains a great size. Individuals weighing 700 and 

 800 pounds have been taken on our coasts. 

 These were stragglers ; but instances are on rec- 

 ord of their having been captured, temptingly fat, 

 of the weight of 1500 or 1600 pounds. Nor do 

 some of the species of chelone stop at that point 

 with which the lovers of turtle are familiar. 

 Some of that genus have been taken with a cara- 

 pace measuring nearly seven feet in length, and 

 more than fifteen feet in circumference ; and have 

 turned the scale against from 800 to 900 pounds. 



When first hatched, the shells of the young 

 turtles are said to be comparatively imperfect, and 

 the little animals have a blanched appearance. 

 Their welcome upon emerging into the light, as 

 they swarm out of the sand like ants from an ant- 

 hill, is but a rough one ; and few young animals 

 are surrounded with more dangers. They in- 

 stinctively make for the sea, but their numbers 

 are greatly reduced by predatory birds and other 

 enemies before it is reached ; and there and then 

 the hungry fishes wait for them open-mouthed. 

 Still, as in the case of all other races, the issue 

 of the battle of life is in their favor, till the species 

 dies out, like the extinct colossochelys, (Falconer,) 

 whose weight must have been something enor- 

 mous, or, like that chimera-like form of the ancient 

 world, in which Nature seems freakishly to have 

 united the sauto-chelysian, or half-lizard, half- 

 tortoise shape, with the canines of a walrus.f 



The testudinata figure largely in the ancient 

 pharmacopoeia, and they seem to have a claim to 

 the patronage of the deities of health equal, at 

 least, to that of the serpents. They must, more- 

 over, have been the terror of the Canidias of the 

 time. 



The flesh of land-tortoises serveth wel in per- 

 fumes and suffumigations, for so it is as good as a 

 countercharm to put by and repell all sorceries and 

 inchantments ; a singular counterpoison also to 

 resist any venome whatsoever. Great store of tor- 

 toises be found in Affricke ; where they use to cut 

 away the head and feet, and then employ the rest of 

 the body as a soveraigne remedy against all poysons. 



Tortoise pottage appears to have rivalled viper 

 brtth : 



If their flesh be eaten together with the broth 

 wherein they are sodden, it is held to be very good 

 fer to discusse and scatter the wens called the 

 King's Evil, and to dissipat or resolve the hard- 



Sifaqayita, to otter a loud sound or roar, 

 t Dicynodon. Discovered by A. G. Bain, Esq.. in 

 sandstone rocks at the south-eastern extremity of Africa ; 

 named and described by Professor Owen in Trans. Geol. 

 Soc., vol. vii., part 2. 



nesse of the swelled spleene ; likewise to cure the 

 falling sicknes, and to drive away the fits thereof. 

 The bloud of tortoises clarifieth the eyesight and 

 dispatcheth the cataracts, if they be anointed there- 

 with. Many incorporat the said bloud in meale, 

 and keep them reduced into the forme of pils ; 

 which, when need requireth, they give in wine as 

 a present help for the poyson of all serpents, spiders, 

 and such like, yea, and the venom of toads. The 

 gail of tortoises mixt with Atticke hony, serveth 

 to cure the fiery rednesse of the eyes, if they be 

 anointed therewith ; the same is good to be dropt 

 into the wounds inflicted by the prick of scorpions. 

 The ashes of the tortoise shel incorporat with wine 

 and oile, and so wrought into a salve, heals the 

 chaps and ulcers of the feet. 



These are but a few of the miracles of healing 

 effected by the application of this panacea of the 

 Roman apothecary's shop. 



Nor are the remedies incorporated in the tur- 

 tles the " sea-tortoises" a whit less powerful or 

 numerous. We spare the catalogue of cures, 

 which those who are curious may read in the 

 marvellous pages of him who has been called the 

 martyr of nature ; only out of our benevolence, 

 and by way of throwing those numerous specifics 

 for the toothache that adorn those towering nuis- 

 ances, the advertising vans, into the shade, in- 

 forming the afflicted that, " Whosoever rubbeth 

 their teeth with tortoise bloud, and use so to do a 

 whole yeare together" remember that " shal be 

 freed from the pain thereof for ever."* 



The ancient mariner not Coleridge's believed 

 that the foot of a tortoise put on board would stop 

 the way of the ship ; and the housewife of other 

 days had no doubt that the shell of a tortoise 

 placed on the pot as it simmered over the fire 

 would prevent it from boiling over. 



The tortoise of ancient fable was sufficiently 

 sage, except when he prevailed on the eagle to 

 give him a lesson in flying, and suffered accord- 

 ingly. To say nothing of his race with the hare, 

 he was eminently reflective as well as persevering. 

 And though he was tempted to murmur at first 

 when he saw the lithe and leaping frogs clearing 

 at a bound a space which cost him long and sore 

 travel, as he dragged himself and his shell along 

 upon the earth when he saw the eel and king 

 stork at work upon them, and how their unarmed 

 bodies exposed them to the stones thrown by a 

 mere child, he repented and said " How much 

 better to bear the weight of this shielding shell, 

 than to be subject to so many forms of wounds and 

 death." And when he beheld lo dancing a frantic 

 hornpipe to the tune of a gadfly, did he not hug 

 himself, and glancing at his panoply, exclaim " I 

 don't care for flies ?"f 



To be sure, he was at times more honest than 

 polite ; as when, on receiving Jove's command to 

 meet the rest of animated nature on the occasion 

 of his nuptials with Juno, he returned the some- 

 what ungracious answer oTxos <piio, oTxos a-giu- 

 iot " home, sweet home ; there 's no place like 

 home," a reply which so roused the ire of tho 



* Holland's Pliny. t Non curat testudo muscos. 



