396 



UTILITARIAN ZOOLOGY 



by heat these can be worked up into all sorts of artistic objects. 

 Very undesirable practices are often resorted to in procuring the 

 raw material, as will be seen from the following quotation from 

 Tennent (in The Natural History of Ceylon). — " If taken from 

 the animal after death and decomposition, the colour of the shell 

 becomes clouded and milky, and hence the cruel expedient is 

 resorted to of seizing the turtles as they repair to the shore to 

 deposit their eggs, and suspending them over fires till heat 



Fig. 127S.— Hawksbill Turtle [Chelonc imbricata) 



makes the plates on the dorsal shields start from the bone of 

 the carapace, after which the creature is permitted to escape to 

 the water. At Celebes, where the finest tortoise-shell is exported 

 to China, the natives kill the turtles by blows on the head, and 

 immerse the shell in boiling water to detach the shields. Dry 

 heat is only resorted to by the unskilful, who frequently destroy 

 the tortoise-shell in the operation." 



Decorative Products of Fishes (Pisces). — Ornamental 

 leather is made from the skins of Dog- Fishes and Sharks 

 (shagreen), while the scales of Dace {^Leitciscjis vulgaris) and 



