Torioiseshell and the .Turtle Fisheries'^ 36 r 



doubted "veracity, and we must Credit the fact, althougH.we 

 are not furnished with any .very definite idea of the mannen' 

 in which they were built. The sea-turtle is sometimes 

 found of sufficient size to make a small boat from, the back- 

 shell,' and of the gigantic luth {Sparges \I)ermdtockctys\' 

 c'oriacea) thei^ is a carapace fully nine feet in length, pre- 

 served in the Sydney Museum, New South Wales. But' 

 the Egyptians could have known nothing of such monsters.. 

 Xhey must have used the larid-tortoise, and most probably; 

 had the art of welding together pieces of shell by means of 

 heat. . : \' 



Diodbfus tells us that, besides furnishing food for the 

 people bordering the Red Sea, they made of the 

 carapace small boats to cross the Red Sea, utensils for 

 holding various substances, and tiles for covering their 

 dwellings. . ' . ■ ■ 



"I have been told," says Dampier, "of a monstrous 

 tottbise taken in the Bay of "Campeachy, which measured 

 four feet from the back to the belly, and six f«et in width.' 

 The son of Captain Rock,' 9 or 10 years old, used this as a 

 boat to go from the shore to his" father's vessel, about a- 

 quarter of a league." Another voyager, Lemaire,'statek'. 

 that, at Gape Blanc, the turtles are of such a size that 'some 

 with the bones removed yielded a barrel of flesh,' without" 

 the head, throat, tail,' fins, tripe, and eggs, and f would- 

 furnish a good meal to 30 men.^^Firmin, "Voyage in 

 Equindxial Holland," page 80. " - .'' ' 



The specimens to be seen in the Natural History 

 Museums of Paris and London, give an idea of the mon- 

 strous size of some of these sea-turtles, so that there is 

 nothing, exaggerated in the accounts of travellers/ But it is 

 not these large turtles that are most esteemed for food \ 

 those of 10 or 25 lbs. weight are the best flavoured. 



