S E A T O R T O I S E S, &c. ?4t 



juft above high-water-mark. She lays ninety or an hundred eggs at a 

 me, as big as an hen's egg, and round as a ball. The white of thefe 

 eggs is faid not to harden by heat, though the yolk does. She conti- 

 nues laying about an hour; during which time, nothing can difturb 

 her. The eggs are covered with a tough white fkin, like wetted parch- 

 ment. When (he has done laying, (he covers the hole very lightly, 

 but ib dexteroufly that it is not an eafy matter to difcover it, and leaves her 

 eggs to be hatched by the heat of the fun. At the end of fifteen days, 

 in fonie places j in others, three weeks, {he lays about the fame number 

 of eggs again; and again, at the end of another fifteen days, ufing the 

 fame precautions every time. In about twenty-four or twenty-five days, the 

 young turtles, being about two or three inches long, burft from the fand, 

 as if earth-born, and crawl direftlyto thefca, inftin^bively : but often, their 

 ftrength being fmall, the furges beat them back on the fliore; expofed 

 a prey to thoufands of birds, crocodiles, tigers, &c. that then haunt the 

 coafts. Fifhermen alfo feize as many young as they can, to breed up in 

 inclofed places free to fait water. Of the whole brood fcarce one in thirty 

 lives to any (izc. When the turtles have done laying, ihey return to their 

 accuftom;ed places, weak, lean, and unfit to be eaten. 



In thefe uninhabited iflands, to which the green turtle chiefly reforts, the 

 men that go to take them land about night-fall, and filently (for thefe ani- 

 mals, though without any external opening of the ear, hear very diftindly, 

 there being an auditory conduit that opens into the mouth), lie clofe 

 while they fee the female turtle coming on Ihore. They let her proceed 

 to her greateft diftance from, the fea j and, when (he is buhiy em- 

 ployed in fcratching a hole, they fally out and furprife her. Their man- 

 ner is to turn her upon her back, which utterly incapacitates her from 

 moving ; and yet, as the creature is very ftrong, clafps the ground vtvy 

 faft, and druggies very hard, two men or more find it no eafy matter ; then 

 they go to the next j and thus, in lefs than three hours, they have been 

 known to turn forty or fifty turtles, each weighing an hundred and fifty, 

 or two hundred pounds. There are feveral other ways of taking themj 

 one is, to feize them when coupled together ; another is Ibiking 

 them by the harpoon, when on the furface of the water, or at the bot- 

 tom j another is, by diving, coming up beneath, and feizing it by the tail; 

 the animal awaking, ftruggles to get free, and by this both are kept 

 afloat till the boat arrives to take them in. 



3 The 



