200 SPOKT IN NORTH AMERICA. 



and let them loose again. When that is done, they 

 never go very far, and when the hunters go back 

 to Cuba, they will take Avith them four or five 

 hundred of these turtles, which meet with a ready 

 sale, for they are capital eating. Every man knows 

 his own by the marks. 



" The fresh-water turtle of the States — and here's 

 a very fine specimen — has a mouth more like a toad 

 than anything else. Their limbs are so large, that 

 there is not quite enough room for them under the 

 shell, as is the case with the Emydidse, or terrapins. 

 These last have the peculiarity, that when the limbs 

 are all beneath the shell, the covering can be shut 

 up just as if it were a box, so as to conceal the 

 creature completely." 



" I remember seeing that kind of turtle in the 

 New Jersey swamps," replied I to the mulatto. 



" It abounds in all swampy places, and so do the 

 snapping turtles, or triones, so called because they 

 are savage, and are apt to bite those who try to 

 catch them. The last live on fish, water reptiles, 

 ducks, &c. You perceive that they have only three 

 claws, instead of four or five, and that their shell is 

 not composed of a hard and horny substance, like 

 the other varieties, but of a soft and thick covering, 

 which hardens in proportion as the trione grows 

 older. Look now at this land tortoise, with the 

 palmated feet. It is said that this kind will live a 

 hundred years." 



