NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 275 



The supply, occasionally, must liave been more than 



equal to the demand, if we may believe Yelleius Pater- 



culus, who relates that, when Caesar took Alexandria, the 



magazines were so rich in tortoiseshell, that he proposed 



to make that highly-prized ornament a principal feature 



in his African triumph. 



The first man that invented the cuttmg of tortoise shells into 

 thin plates, therewith to seele beds, tables, cui)bords, and presses, 

 was Carbilius Pollio, a man very ingenions and inventive of such 

 toies, serving to riot and superfluous expense.* 



The carapace entire was frequently used for a cradle 

 and a bath for young children ; nor did the warrior dis- 

 dain it as a shield. 



The size to which some of the species grew was enor- 



Fundit humo facilem victum justissima tellus. 

 Si non iiigentem foribus domus alta superbis 

 Mane salutantum totis vomit a^dibus undam ; 

 Nee varios inhiant pulchrd testiidine j^ostes, 

 Inlusasque auro vestes, Ephyre'iaque sera ; 

 Alba neque Assyrio fucatur lana veneno. 

 Nee casia liquidi corrumpitur usus olivi : 

 At secura quies, et nescia fallere vita, 

 Dives opum variarura, at latis otia fundis, 

 Speluncic, vivique lacus, at frigida Tenipe, 

 Mugitusque bourn, moUesque sub arbore somni 

 Non absvmt. 

 * Holland's Pliny. And again, — ' Cornelius Nepos WTitcth, 

 that before the victory of Sylla, who defeated ]\Iarius, two dining 

 tables, and no more there were throughout Rome, all of silver. 

 Fenestella saith, that in his time (and he died the last yere of the 

 reigne of Tyberius Cajsar the Emperor) men began to bestow silver 

 upon their cupboords and side livery tables : and even then also 

 (by his saying) tortoise 'worke came in request, and was much 

 used. Howbeit, somewhat before his dales, he writeth, that those 

 cupboords were of wood, round and solid of one entire piece, and 

 not much bigger than the tables vi'hereupon men eat their meat ; 

 but when bee was a young boy, they were foure square, and of 

 many peeces joyned together ; and then they began to be covered 

 over with thin boords or paiuels, either of maple or citron wood.' 

 So that, after all, this is not the only afje of veneer. 



