84> CLASS REPTILIA. 



They proceed to deposit their eggs at some distance from 

 their usual domicile, and then abandon them. In this voyage 

 the male follows the female, and does not quit her until their 

 return. It is believed that during the whole time of their 

 absence they eat nothing ; it is certain that they are extremely 

 lean when they do return, especially the male. The same 

 traveller adds, that they are accompanied in their route by 

 sharks, and an infinite number of other fishes. 



The places most remarkable for the deposition of eggs by 

 the testudo mydas, are the Alligator Islands, in the sea of 

 the Antilles, and that of Ascension, in the middle of the 

 Equinoxial Atlantic Ocean. They arrive at the former from 

 the end of April to the month of September, and none of 

 them can have travelled less than forty or a hundred leagues, 

 for such is the distance from their nearest points of departure, 

 which are the little isles southward of Cuba. Those which 

 proceed to Ascension Island cannot have travelled less than 

 three hundred leagues, whether they come from Africa or 

 America. 



An innumerable quantity of these turtles are found in the 

 channels between the Gallapago islands and the Equinoxial 

 Ocean. They proceed to the coasts of America to deposit 

 their eggs — a distance, at the least, of one hundred and forty 

 leagues. 



In consequence of all this we may believe, that the same 

 instinct which leads the young turtles to enter the sea the 

 moment they are born, a fact noticed in our general obser- 

 vations on the order, also conducts them to the latitudes 

 inhabited by their mothers, where they find an abundant 

 supply of food. Another consequence of the fact which we 

 have described, is the circumstance of these tortoises having 

 been met by travellers in the high seas at seven or eight 

 hundred leagues of distance from any land whatsoever. 



This animal may be considered as one of the most useful 



