TRUNK BACK OR LEATHERY TURTLE. 80 



count of a leathery or trunk turtle : " In the month 

 of August, 1729, three leagues from Nantes near the 

 mouth of the Loire one of these marine reptiles was 

 taken which measured seven feet and is said to have ut- 

 tered a scream so loud as to have been heard a mile." 

 Dr. D. Humphreys Storer, in his Report upon the Reptiles 

 of Massachusetts, says, "The naturalist may judge of the 

 great rarity of this species from the following observa- 

 tions by Dumeril and Bibron in their Erpetologie gen- 

 erale ou Histoire complete des Reptiles. This species is 

 very rare. It inhabits the Mediterranean and the Atlantic 

 ocean. Rondeletus mentions a Sphargis lutli live cubits 

 long which was taken at Frontignon. Amoreux describes 

 another which was taken in the harbor of Cette, and Bor- 

 lais gives a figure of a Sphargis lutli that was taken in 

 1756 upon the coast of Cornwall, England." 



In the Reptiles of Bermuda, by Samuel Garman, Bulle- 

 tin No. 25, U. S. National Museum, I find the following 

 notice in regard to the ovulation of Sphargis. The items 

 are copied from the Morning Journal of April 30, 1846, 

 by Gosse, in the Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica, 1859, 

 p. 350, and bears the marks of its origin in evidence of 

 desire to make the most of it, yet as Mr. Gosse remarks, 

 it has sufficient appearance of accuracy to warrant preser- 

 vation. The locality of the occurrence is Negril Bay at 

 the west end of Jamaica. " The anxiety of the fishermen 

 in this little village was aroused on the thirtieth of last 

 mouth by the track of a huge sea monster called a trunk tur- 

 tle which came on the sea beach for the purpose of laying 

 her eggs ; a search was made when a hole was discovered 

 about four feet deep and as wide as the mouth of a half 

 barrel, whence five or six dozen white eggs were taken ; 

 the eggs were of different sizes, the largest being the size 

 of a duck's egg. On the morning of the tenth of this 



