TORTOISE, SEA DEVIL. 175 



utters sometimes a broken hiss, like other tortoises. They 

 were found in such abundance in a lake in the south of 

 France, as to supply the peasantry with food for three 

 months together. Though aquatic, the mud tortoise lays 

 its eggs on land, digging a hole to receive them, which it 

 covers with mould. The pace of this animal is much more 

 rapid than that of the land tortoise. It may be domesticated, 

 and is a useful inmate of a garden, as it feeds on snails and 

 other noxious insects. It must be provided with water, 

 but if placed near a fish pond, would prove very destructive 

 to the sh. 



THE SNAKE TORTOISE 



Inhabits the stagnant waters of North America, and 

 weighs, when full grown, fifteen or twenty pounds. The 

 general colour of the animal is a chesnut brown : the shell 

 is oval and depressed: the head flat, triangular, and 

 covered with scaly warts ; the neck, which appears very 

 short when the animal is at rest, may be stretched out to 

 a third of the length of the shell. This is shown when 

 the animal seizes its prey, which it does with great force, 

 accompanied with a hissing noise. The grasp of its jaws 

 is so strong, that when it has taken hold of a stick, it will 

 sufier itself to be raised with it rather than let it go. The 

 feet are webbed. 



SEA-DEVIL. 



The head of this disgusting animal is equal in size to all 

 the rest of the body. It is sometimes seen four or five feet 

 long; and Mr. Pennant mentions one taken near Scar- 

 borough, whose mouth was a yard wide. To increase the 

 deformity, the under jaw is much longer than the upper; 

 and immediately above the nose are two long tough 

 filaments, and on the back three others, which seem like 

 lines hung out to attract fishes. The body grows slender 

 towards the tail. The colour of the upper part of the 

 body is dusky, the lower is white, and the skin is smooth. 



The fishermen entertain a sort of veneration for this ugly 

 fish, as conceiving it to be hostile to the dog-fish, from the 

 body of that fierce and voracious creature being frequently 

 found in its stomach : on this account, when they catch the 

 lishing-frog, they generally restore it to its native element. 



