76 



Marine Tortoises. - 



■ REPTILES.- 



-Marise Tortoises. 



an article of commerce. The introduction of turtle as 

 an article of luxury into this country dates more than 

 one hundred years back. The fat of certain species, 

 when fresh, is used instead of butter or oil in cooking ; 

 and that of those species which smell of musk is em- 

 ployed in preparing leather and giving it suppleness, as 

 well as for burning in lamps. This fatty or oily matter 

 is so abundant in these animals, that frequent!}' thirty 

 pints of it have been extracted from one individual. 



'J'he eggs of the greater number of species are very 

 much sought after as affording an excellent article of 

 food. The white part or albimien does not coagulate 

 by heat, but the yolk is nnich esteemed. Even in the 

 musky species the eggs are of excellent tlavour. Mr. 

 Holbrook informs us, that in the Tortugas Islands 

 (four or five uninhabited sandbanks in the Caribaaan 

 Sea, visited only by turtles and wreckers, but which 

 are a favourite haunt of the Green Tiu'lle), the eggs of 

 this species are taken wholesale. " The ' egger,'" he 

 says "uses a small stiff rod, with which he 'probes' 

 the sand in those places where Turtles usuallj' deposit 

 their eggs ; and in this way myriads are collected, as 

 may be supposed, when it is recollected that many 

 hundreds of turtles laj' their eggs on a small space of 

 sandbank. The ' eggers,' however, do not confine 

 their depredations to the nests of the Green Turtles, 

 but they seize upon those of all-other species, as well 

 as upon the eggs of thousands of sea-birds that seek 

 the same localities during the breeding season." 



The horny lamina; oi' plates which cover the cara- 

 pace and bi-eastplate of the Marine tortoises can very 

 readily be detached. In the gr^jiter number of species 

 they are too thin to be employed with advantage in 

 the arts or manufactures ; b>it those of the Hawk's- 

 bill Turtle {Chelonia imhricata) are thicker, stronger, 

 and more transparent than those of any other species, 

 and are accordingly much esteemed and made great 

 use of for ornamental purposes, under the name of 

 " Tortoise-shell." This substance appears to differ 

 essentially from horn, because, as Messrs. Dumeril 

 and Bibron remark, it is not formed of parallel fibres, 

 and because it appears rather an exudation of solidified, 

 muco-albun\iuous matter, the tissue of which is homo- 

 geneous, but which can be cut and polished in every 

 way like horn. Besides, they add, it is susceptible of 

 being softened by the application of heat, and then can 

 be made to assume various forms, which it preserves 

 after cooling. Thus, though in the rough state these 

 plates are fragile and brittle, when properly treated, 

 from the fineness of its tissue, its compactness, the 

 admirable polish and impressions it can receive, its 

 ductility, the facility with which it can be moulded, 

 and its fragments soldered together and amalgamated 

 by means of their own substance reduced to powder, 

 tortoise-shell is in gi-eat demand in the manufacture of 

 ornamental objects of furniture, and has become an 

 article of considerable commerce. In order to obtain 

 the plates from the carapace of this animal, it is only 

 necessary to subject the shell to the action of heat. 

 According to Dumeril and Bibron's account of this 

 process, the convex part of the carapace is submitted 

 to the effect of a strong fire, by which means the plates 

 start up and are then detached with great facility. In 



his account of Ceylon, Sir J. Emerson Tennent says, 

 that as the shell becomes clouded and milky after the 

 animal's death, the natives of that island, in order to 

 take it freshly coloured, catch the turtles as they come 

 to deposit their eggs, and " suspend them over fires, 

 till the heat makes the plates on their dorsal shieldi 

 start from the bone of the carapace ; after which the 

 creature is permitted to escape to the water." In the 

 rough state these plates vary much in colour. Some 

 are transparent, and are called " white, or spotless ;" 

 others are marked with a reddish-brown colour, more 

 or less deep, which is disposed in round, irregular 

 spots, or in streaks, and are called " speckled ;" others, 

 again, are quite brown or black. The ancients 

 appear to have been exceedingly fond of the use of 

 this beautiful substance in the decoration of their 

 houses, apartments, &c. Tin's luxury was carried to 

 an excessive degree by the Romans in the time of 

 Augustus. Bruce, in his Travels, informs us that 

 " the Egyptians dealt largely with Rome in this article 

 of commerce. Pliny tells us that the cutting of them 

 for veneering or inlaying was iirst practised by Carvi- 

 lius Pollio, from which we would presume that the 

 Romans were ignorant of the Arabian and Egyptian 

 art of separating the lamina by fire placed in the inside 

 of the shell when the meat is taken out. Martial says 

 that beds were inlaid with it. Juvenal, and Apuleius 

 in his tenth book, mentions that the Indian bed was 

 all over shining with tortoise shell on the outside, and 

 swelling with stufBng of down within. The immense 

 use made of it in Rome may be guessed by what we 

 learn from Velleius Paterculus, who says, that when 

 Alexandria was taken by Julius Caesar, the magazines 

 or warehouses were so full of this article, that he pro- 

 posed to have made it the piincipal ornament of his' 

 triumph, as he did ivorj' afterwards, when triumphing 

 for having happily finished the African war. This, 

 too, in more modern times, was a great article in the 

 trade to China, and I Iiave always been exceedingly 

 surprised, since nearly the whole of the Arabian Gulf 

 is comprehended in the charter of the East India Com- 

 pany, that they do not make an experiment of fishing 

 both pearls and tortoises." 



Such being the value of Marine tortoises, no wonder 

 that their capture is a business of great importance, and 

 that many methods are employed for that purpose. On 

 some coasts advantage is taken of the usual time when 

 the females land upon the desert islands to deposit their 

 eggs. Their time for doing this, as has been already 

 mentioned, is the in'ght. The turtlers, who frequent 

 these places, wait in perfect silence till they have left 

 the water; they then intei'cept them, and with their 

 hands, or with a lever when they are too heavy, turn 

 them on their back. As they cannot turn or " right 

 themselves" when once placed in that position, they 

 remain there till morning, when the men return and 

 carry them off to their bbats. They are often left in 

 this same position, on the deck of the vessels on board 

 which they are taken, for twenty days ; the only pre- 

 caution adopted being to wet them with sea-water 

 several times a day. They are then deposited in the 

 preserves or pens, or, as they are called in America, 

 crawls, made for the purpose of keeping them, and 



