630 REPTILIA—TURTLE. 
One of these anirnals was taken in the year 1729, at the mouth of the Loire, 
in France, in nets that were not designed for so large a capture. This tur- 
tle, which was of enormous strength, by its own struggles, involved itself 
in the nets in such a manner as to be incapable of doing mischief: yet, 
even thus shackled, it appeared terrible to the fishermen, who were at first 
for flying; but, finding it impotent, they gathered courage to drag it on shore, 
where it made a most horrible bellowing ; and when they began to knock 
it on the head with their gaffs, it was to be heard at half a mile’s distance. 
They were still further intimidated by its nauseous and pestilential breath, 
which so powerfully affected them that they were near fainting. This 
animal wanted but four inches of being eight feet long, and was about two 
feet over; its shell more resembled leather than the shell of a tortoise; and 
unlike all other animals of this kind, it was furnished with teeth in each 
jaw, one rank behind another, like those of a shark; its feet also, different 
from the rest of this kind, wanted claws; and the tail was quite disengaged 
from the shell, and fifteen inches long, more resembling that of a quadruped 
than a tortoise. 
These are a formidable and useless kind, if compared to the turtle caught 
in the South seas and the Indian ocean. These are of different kinds; not 
only unlike each other in form, but furnishing man with very different ad 
vantages. They are usually distinguished by sailors into four kinds; the 
trunk turtle, the loggerhead, the hawksbill, and the green turtle. 
THE. HAWKSBILL, OR IMBRICATED TURTLE 

Is the least of the four, and has a long and small mouth, somewhat resem- 
bling the billof a hawk. The flesh of this, also, is very indifferent eating ; 
but the shell serves for the most valuable purposes. This is the animal that 
supplies the tortoise shell, of which such a variety of beautiful trinkets are 
made. 


1 Chelonia imbricata, Cuv. 
