264 NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



patiently counting the ova in the ovary of a potamian 

 mother, and dehberately giving the results, we pause, 

 and thank the gods, who have disposed the mercurial 

 mind of one of our near neighbours to quietly settle 

 down to ovarian statistics. In the ovary of a pregnant 

 potamian, M. Lesueur counted twenty ripe eggs, ready to 

 come forth at the bidding of Dame Nature. Then he 

 saw a quantity of ova, varying in size from that of a 

 pin's head to the goodly volume of rotundity which they 

 attain, when the calcareous coat, which is necessary for 

 the protection of the egg when it is exposed to the 

 dangers of this world, is superadded : what ' the tottle of 

 the whole' is, may be ascertained by those who feel dis- 

 posed to inquire of M. Lesueur; and if they will consult 

 the oracle, they will rise from the consultation wiser 

 men, unless they have sounded all the shallows and 

 depths of testudinate life. 



But enough, and, for the reader who is not zoologically 

 disposed, more than enough. He has been led, if he 

 has condescended to follow, from the land to the marsh, 

 from the marsh to the lake, stream, and river, the 

 residences of the various modifications of testudinate life. 

 A short repose should be placed at his disposal before, in 

 the course of our narrative, he follows these great rivers 

 of the old and new world, in which the freshwater-tor- 

 toises disport themselves, into that ocean in which all 

 rivers, great and small, are lost. But there, in that 

 boundless waste of waters, we shall find that Nature has 

 modified the Chelonian type into the Thalassian shape, 

 which occupies a distinguished reptilian place in the 

 present world, and in that which is gone for ever. 



October, 1850. 



