REPTILES OF BERMUDA. 293 
but this is of truth that Hogges, Turkles, Fish and Fowle doe abound 
as dust of the earth.” 
That wanton destruction had decidedly lessened the number of turtles 
as early as 1620 is evident from the following act of the Assembly of 
that year : 
“AN ACT AGAYNST THE KILLINGE OF OUER YOUNG TORTOYSES. 
‘Tn regard that much waste and abuse hath been offered and yet is 
by sundrye lewd and impvident psons inhabitinge wthin these Islands 
who in there continuall goinges out to sea for fish doe upon all ocea- 
sions, And at all tymes as they can meete with them, snatch & catch 
up indifferentlye all kinds of Tortoyses both yonge & old little and 
greate and soe kill carrye awaye and devoure them to the much decay 
of the breed of so excellent a fishe the daylye skarringe of them from 
of our shores and the danger of an utter distroyinge and losse of them. 
“Tt is therefore enacted by the Authoritie of this present Assembly 
That from hence forward noe manner of pson or psons of what degree 
or condition soeuer he be inhabitinge or remayninge at any time wthin 
these Islands shall p*sume to kill or cause to be killed in any Bay 
Sound Harbor or any other place out to Sea: being w*"in five leagues 
round about of those Islands any young Tortoyses that are or shall not 
be found to be Eighteen inches in the Breadth or Dyameter and that 
upon the penaltye for euerye such offence of the fforfeyture of fifteen 
pounds of Tobacco whereof the one half is to be bestowed in publique 
uses the other upon the Informer.” 
Allusions to the turtles become less frequent in the latter half of the 
century. In fact, it would seem as if the first twenty or thirty years of 
the settlement’s existence had served so to reduce their numbers as to 
make them somewhat rare. This is the opinion of General Lefroy, to 
whose great work on the Bermudas I am indebted for the early history. 
In the preface of his work (Mem. Bermudas, Vol. I, preface, p. viii) he 
says: “The abundance of turtle, fish, and fowl rapidly came to an 
end.” Other writers of recent times mention them as occurring in the 
waters off the shores, but do not speak of them as abundant. General 
Lefroy states in a foot-note (Vol. I, p. 67) that “ The largest hawksbill 
turtle killed for many years past weighed 150 pounds ; the largest green 
turtle 145 pounds in the shell.” General Nelson, Geology of Bermuda, 
1837, notes the occurrence of very large turtle bones in the sands near 
the shore. I give his statements at second hand, as found in Mr. Jones’s 
book: “ Turtle bones have also been dug up in the loose sand of the sea- 
