342 



HISTORY OF FISHES. 



taken upon the coasts; two in particular upon 

 those of Cornwall, in the year 1756, the largest 

 of which weighed eight hundred pounds; 

 and one upon the isle of Rhe, but two years 

 before, that weighed between seven and eight 

 hundred. One, most probably of this kind 

 also, was caught about thirty years ago near 

 Scarborough, and a good deal of company was 

 invited to feast upon it : a gentleman, who 

 was one of the guests, told the company that 

 it was a Mediterranean turtle, and not whole- 

 some; but a person, who was willing to satisfy 

 his appetite at the risk of his life, ate of it : 

 he was seized with a violent vomiting and 

 purging; but his constitution overpowered the 

 malignity of the poison. 



These are a formidable and useless kind, if 

 compared to the turtle caught in the South 

 seas and the Indian ocean. These are of 

 different kinds ; not only unlike each other in 

 form, but furnishing man with very different 

 advantages. They are usually distinguished 

 by sailors into four kinds; the Trunk Turtle, 

 (he Loggerhead, the Hawksbill, and the Green 

 Turtle. 



The Trunk Turtle is commonly larger than 

 the rest, and its back higher and rounder. 

 The flesh of this is rank, and not very whole- 

 some. 



The Loggerhead is so called from the large- 

 ness of its head, which is much bigger in pro- 

 portion than that of the other kinds. 1 The 



1 The Loggerhead Turtle. The Loggerhead turtle (tes- 

 tudo caretta) has some resemblance to the green turtle ; 

 hut the head is larger, the shell broader, and the colours 

 more intense. There are also two more pieces in the 



brick plate, and the fore legs are longer and the hind legs 

 shorter in proportion. It is much more active than the 

 green turtle, and ranges over a much greater extent in 

 latitude. It is by no means uncommon in the Mediter- 

 ranean, not merely on the coasts of Africa, but on those 

 of Italy and Sicily. The flesh is tough and harsh, though 

 eaten by the poor. The shell too, is thin, dull, and of 

 little value, though the Italian workmen sometimes use 

 it in veneering. The principal value of the animal is 

 for its oil, which is abundant, considerably superior to 

 whale-oil, and some suppose it would answer well for 

 the dressing of leather, for which cod-oil, made from the 

 liver, is chiefly used in this country. The eggs of the 

 loggerhead are more palatable than the flesh. 



The loggerhead is as formidable and fierce as the green 

 turtle is gentle and inoffensive. Its jaws are very hard 

 and strong, and they come together with much force. 

 They are, however, well adapted to its food, the princi- 

 pal part of which is shelled animals, and it can easily 

 break the hardest shell. It ran also strike and scratch 

 with its long fore legs, which have strong claws project- 

 ing beyond the webs of the toes. It will snap at a stick 



flesh of this also is very rank, and not eaten 

 but in case of necessity. 



The Hawksbill Turtle (or Imbricated Tur- 

 tle) is the least of the four, and has a long and 

 small mouth, somewhat resembling the bill of 

 a hawk. 2 The flesh of this also is very indif- 



or any other object with which it is threatened ; and Us 

 hold is so firm that it will break a thick stick, or bend a 

 rod of iron. It is exceedingly difficult to get it to quit 

 its hold after once it has been taken ; and it is commonly 

 said that the " loggerhead" continues to bite after it has 

 been separated from the body. The hold which, in that 

 case it retains, is not the stillness of death, for the head 

 of any tortoise lives for some time after it has been cut 

 off. 



The?e animals are formidable in size, too; for it has 

 been said that some weighing 1500 or 1600 pounds have 

 been met with. They also swim with more rapidity 

 than the green turtle, being much more frequently met 

 with " on the high seas." When young, they have so 

 great a resemblance to the green turtle as to lead to a 

 suspicion that the specimens met with on the western 

 coast of France, and described as green turtle, were in 

 fact loggerheads ; because green turtle have not been 

 found in the Mediterranean, the shores of which have a 

 much more tropical character than the coast of France. 

 It is probable that all the green turtle described as being 

 found far out at sea, were in truth the species now under 

 consideration.- Asa grazing animal, the green turtle is 

 not likely to go often or far to places where it can find 

 no bottom, while the loggerhead, a devourer of flesh, can 

 range the ocean at its pleasure. In Europe this turtle 

 is not often found to the north of the Mediterranean ; and 

 in America it is seldom found to the north of Floiitla. 

 As it has not the same charms for the palate of the epi- 

 cure, its habits, though it has been much longer known, 

 have not been so much studied as those of the other. 



The Hawksbill Turtle. The Hawksbill turtle 

 (Testudo imbricata) gets its scientific name from the 

 arrangement of the plates, which overlap each other like 

 the tiles on a roof ; and it gets its common English name 

 from the partial resemblance of its mouth, seen in profile, 

 to the bill of a hawk. Its head, neck, and legs are longer 

 in proportion to their thickness than those of the other 

 turtles ; it is more active, swimming with greater velo- 

 city, and righting itself when turned. Its eggs are eat- 

 able, but its flesh is not good, and the chief value of it 

 to man are the plates on its back, which are the true 

 tortoise-shell of commerce, and have been highly esteemed 

 from the earliest ages. There are thirteen plates in the 

 central part, surrounded by twenty-five smaller ones. 

 The large central plates are the finest shell ; and they 

 are often of considerable thickness. The plates of shell 

 do not form the entire case of the animal. The inner or 

 supporting part is bony, and may be considered as part 

 of the skeleton. The true skin is between the bony sub- 

 stance and the plates of shell. The plates are a pro- 

 duction of that skin, and in the living state they are 

 covered by an epidermis, or scarfskin. The common 

 way of obtaining the plates is to heat the entire back- 

 piece of the animal, by fire applied under the hollow on 

 the inside. By that means the gelatine of the skin is 

 dissolved, the skin itself swells, and the plates are easily 

 detached entire. A turtle of about cOO pounds weight 

 will produce about ten or twelve pounds of shell ; but in 

 the common way of obtaining the shell, the animal, 

 which is otherwise useless in the arts, is sacrificed. In 

 the eastern isles, where the hawksbill turtle is very 

 abundant, the Malays, who procure large quantities of 

 shell for the Chinese, pursue a different method. They 

 catch the turtle aliv0, and retain it while they detach 

 the central plates, so dexterously as not to lacerate the 



