384 CHELONIA 



CHAP. 



since frequently many more are turned over and left to perish 

 than are taken away. Men lying in ambush watch the beast, 

 or they approach the lonely sandy shore by boat, and rush the 

 helpless creatures when these are surprised in sufficient numbers. 

 It takes several men to lift a full-grown specimen. It is there- 

 fore necessary to secure them by turning them over with poles or 

 by their nippers, lest they should crawl away. On board ship 

 they are either put into tanks or tied with ropes on deck, covered 

 with a moistened cloth ; and occasionally a piece of bread, soaked 

 in sea- water, is thrust into the parched mouth. In London they 

 are kept in large tanks, often in considerable numbers, but since 

 they take no food in captivity, or rather because it is difficult to 

 supply them with the right sort, they are not kept long. After 

 the head has been cut off, the body is suspended for a day or two, 

 in order to drain it of the blood. It is not only the meat and 

 the fat which are used for the making of the famous soup, but 

 also the thick and dense layer of subcutaneous tissue which lines 

 the inside of the shell. 



Tennent describes a revolting spectacle exhibited in the 

 markets of Jaffna, in Ceylon. The flesh of the turtles is sold 

 piecemeal by the Tamil fishermen, while the animals are 

 still alive. At certain seasons, says the same authority, the 

 flesh of turtle on the south-west coast of Ceylon is usually 

 avoided as poisonous, but some lamentable instances are recorded 

 of neglect of this, and consequent sickness, followed by coma and 

 death. In the Gulf of Manaar specimens are frequently found 

 between four and five feet in length ; and on one occasion, in 

 riding along the seashore north of Putlam, he saw a man in 

 charge of some sheep, resting under the shade of a turtle shell, 

 which he had erected on sticks to protect him from the sun. 

 In connexion with this curious sight, Tennent quotes Aelian's 

 statements/copied by him from Megasthenes' Indica Frag. lix. 3 1 , 

 that in the Indian ocean turtles occur which measure fifteen ells, 

 so that not a few people may find ample shelter beneath a single 

 shell. 



Ch. imbricata (" Hawksbill Turtle "). The number of shields 

 covering the carapace is the same as in Ch. mydas, but they 

 strongly imbricate, or overlap each other from before backwards, 

 until the animal is very old, when the shields become juxtaposed. 

 In young specimens, under one foot in length, each of the neural 



