RI Tie Natural Hiftory of the Book X. 
one Ventricle, its Circulation is performed after the fame Manner as in 
a Frog; in which, not above one third pafles through the Lungs ; it is 
dicenile owing to the Coldnefs of the Blood, its flow Motion, and thick 
Armour with which the Zor‘oi/e is furrounded, that it is at a very little 
Expence of €pirits by tranfpiration ; and confequently hath lefs Need 
of a'frefh Recruit: The Liver is large, and ofa dark Green, and the great 
‘Gut or Colon, on the outfide full of feeming Prickles; however their Points 
are foft and pliable, the Flefh when baked or ftewed, is a moft delicious and 
nourifhing Diet ; the young Ones are often caught with a Hook and 
Line: the propereft Bait for this Purpofe is a Sea-Bladder; and they 
are likewife fometimes drawn afhore in Nets. There is another Method 
‘of taking the larger Sort, efepecially the Females, by watching their 
coming afhore in the Night, upon the dry, fandy Bays, in the Months 
of Sune, Fuly, Auguf, and September, in which laying Seafons, after 
they have crawled above High-Water-Mark, they dig with their Fins 
(which are ftrong, nervous, and flefhy) a Hole of about two Feet deep, 
in the loofe Sand, in which the Female lays fometimes an hundred or 
mire Eggs ; the outward Tegument of thefe is rather fkinny than fhelly, 
its Shape is round, of about an Inch anda Quarter Diameter; the in- 
fide of the Egg is yellow, and to the’ Tafte fomewhat gritty. After 
thefe Eggs are thus depofited in the Sand, the Tortoife fills up the Hole 
in fo nice a Manner, that it will be {carce perceivable that the Sand had 
been difturb’d; and the Eggs, by the Heat of the Sun, will, in nine 
Weeks, be hatched, and the young Tortoifes immediately crawl into th 
Seas: 
Before we conclude this Defcription, it will not be impertinent to ob- 
ferve, that the Ancients knew the Value of the Tortoife-Flefh in Phy- 
fick, as well as of its Shell for making the Lyre. The former appears 
from JVicander, in his Poem call’d Alexipharma ; and Horace {peaking 
of the Lyre made of the Tortoife-fhell, fays, 
O teftudinis auree 
Dulcem que frrepitum Pieri temperas 
O mutis quoque pifcibus 
Donatura cycni, fi libeat, fonum. 
_ By the Word gi/cibus, it is evident, that the Lyre mentioned by Alo 
vace was made with the Shell of the Sea-Tortoife, which maketh- Uf 
of Fins to {wim with asa Fifh; whereas the Land-Tortoife (tho’ the 
Shell of this hath been often us’d in Greece to the fame Purpofe) is 
arm’d with Claws, and is at moft but barely an amphibious Animal ; 
whereas the other, applied here by Horace, is almoft intirely an 
Aquatic, ; 
The 
