Tortoiseshell and the Turtle Fisheries. 353 



Tortoiseshell is usually detached from the carapace and 

 bony framework by placing heat below, or sometimes by 

 soaking it in boiling water. In the West Indies the plates 

 or blades of tortoiseshell are removed by burying the 

 carapace in the ground, or in the sand, for 10 or 12 days. 

 When taken up the blades fall off, and the 13 dorsal pieces 

 are easily collected, forming the before-mentioned, viz., eight 

 " sides," two " hoofs," one *' skull," and two " main plates." 

 A small hole is bored in each, so as to string them together, 

 for no experienced buyer will purchase a case of tortoise- 

 shell unless the whole of the shell is thus presented. 



The " feet " or " noses " of the tortoiseshell are chiefly 

 in demand in China. The blades of the hawksbill or im- 

 bricated turtle are very transparent, and more beautifully 

 mottled than those of the caret turtle ; the scales of the 

 latter are thinner, and are not used for the same purposes, 

 but employed for veneering and inlaying work. The shell 

 of the hawksbill has a blackish green colour, with yellowish 

 spots ; while the colour of the plates of the caret turtle is 

 blackish, with irregular transparent spots of golden yellow, 

 and veined with red and white, or of a brownish black, of 

 various shades. 



The plates of the green or edible turtle are thin and 

 flexible, and of slight manufacturing use. Their general 

 colour is dull palish brown, streaked with patches of black, 

 but not exhibiting those strong beautiful colours which so 

 peculiarly distinguish that of the imbricated tortoise. The 

 scales of the carapace of the loggerhead turtle are of a 

 dark chestnut brown, very thin, and neither clear nor 

 beautifully coloured ; hence they are of little value : but 

 latterly some use appears to be made of them, for the 

 imports of turtleshell (as it is commercially named, in con- 

 tradistinction to tortoiseshell) have averaged in the last 



2 A 



