NOTE-BOOK OF A A^ATURALIST. 287 



comfortably basking in a dozy state on the surface, within 

 the proper distance. Noiselessly, then, does he slip one 

 of his corded remoras overboard, and the fish, ill-provided 

 with fins for an enduring swim, makes instantly for the 

 turtle, while the fisherman, almost afraid to draw his 

 breath, pays out the line. Away goes the remora, with- 

 out stop or stay, till it anchors on the plastron of the 

 slumberer. The fisherman remembers the patient de- 

 meanour required by all of his craft, and ' gives time.' 

 When he thinks the marine squatter has made a com- 

 fortable settlement he hauls away, and the surprised 

 turtle finds itself on board the boat, where a push applied 

 from behind forwards detaches the remora, when the 

 turtle is laid upon its back, secunchim artem, at the 

 bottom of the boat, and the remora is returned to its tub ; 

 burning, no doubt, cold-blooded as it is, to relate its 

 adventure, and the uncompromising treatment to which 

 it has been subjected. 



How many mortals are treated by the great like this 

 poor remora, and, having secured the prize for them, are 

 returned to their tub till ' next time V 



But to return to Catesby. After a short account of 

 the hawks-bill, he says of the loggerheads that they are 

 the boldest, the most voracious, and the foulest feeders 

 of all the turtles. 



They range (says he) the ocean over ; an instance of which, 

 amongst many that I have known, happen'd the 20th of April, 

 1725, in the latitude of thirty degrees north, when our boat was 

 hoisted out, and a loggerhead turtle struck as it was sleepino- on 

 the surface of the water. This, by our reckoning, appeared to be 

 midway between the Azores and the Bahama Islands, either of 

 which places being the nearest land it could come from, or that 

 they are known to frequent ; there being none on the north con- 

 tinent of America farther north than Cape Florida. It being 

 amphibious, and yet at so great a distance from laud in breedino- 

 time, makes it the more remarkable. They feed mostly on shell- 

 fish ; the greater strength and hardness of their beaks enabling 

 them to break very large shells, particularly the Buccinum, pieces 



