RELATION DE l'ILE EODRIGUE. 323 



names I do not know. The Lamantins^ are abundant, especially 

 at the time they are breeding. I have seen thirty or forty in a 

 herd grazing on the weed, in two or three feet of water. They 

 are from fifteen to eighteen feet long. The females suckle their 

 little ones in the same fashion as a woman ; I have only seen 

 them nurse one at a time. They have two kinds of paws or 

 hands, with which they hold their little ones ; they have not fins ; 

 their tail is large and horizontal when the Lamantin is on its 

 belly. The skin is hard, and nearly an inch thick. The flesh 

 tastes something like that of veal, and the fat is firmer than that 

 of pork. 



The sea-turtle^ is in such great abundance that a quantity of 

 them is found stranded on the reefs when the tide is low, and not 

 at all seasons. It is at the time of their laying and of their 

 cavelage (calfatage ?), that is, of the coupling of these animals, 

 which remain in this manner for nine days ; afterwards their 

 eggs develop ; but I have not been able to know how many 

 they bear, whatever trouble I have taken. I have only remarked 

 that two or three days before laying, they come to taste the sand, 

 and if they find it good and properly warmed, they come to lay ; 

 in this fashion, they dig a hole in the sand where the sea does not 

 reach, about three feet, and there put their eggs, from which, at 

 the end of thirty-one days, issue all the little turtles by the same 

 hole. I have remarked an extraordinary circumstance, which is, 

 that if these little animals are placed at half a league from the 

 sea they always find it ; and immediately they reach it, unless 

 they are careful to hide themselves under some rocks, the fish, 

 especially the sharks, destroy many of them. The sea-turtles are 

 caught easily by the hand, and without any instrument, or even a 

 boat ; they watch for them the night they come to lay ; when 

 they turn them on their back, they remain there. I have seen 

 sea-turtles which laid upwards of 2,000 eggs. 



There are crabs of five or six species.^ I have not seen either 

 lobsters or prawns, whatever pains I have taken. 



1 Vide ante, p. 74. ^ yid^ ante, p. 72. 



^ Vide ante, p. 93. 



y2 



