

*i6 APPENDIX. 



which was cfteemcd a large one. Simple as it is, i d® 

 not know one good figure of it. This which I have 

 fubmitted to the reader may be depended upon for its exact- 

 nefs, otherwife the animal is well known, and has often been, 

 defcribed. 



Its back is covered like the reft of other turtles, with a 

 bony fubilanee, and this again is covered by lamina, or 

 fcales of a thin tranfparent texture, variegated with dark 

 brown ftreaks, difpofed in each fcale as radii proceeding 

 from a centre. The outer rows of the great fcales are irre- 

 gular pentagons. The row that runs down the middle 

 between thefe are regular hexagons, and round the whole 

 circumference the large fcales are inclofed by a', kind 

 of quadrangular frame firmly united; the broadeft and 

 largeft of thefe fcales being nearefl the tail. The loweft 

 of all, as it were in the centre of the loweft part of the 

 figure, is notched, the centre of this divifion anfwering 

 to a line drawn through the middle of the oval, and the 

 head or occiput. 



This fifh lays a multitude of eggs. Some have faid that 

 thefe are laid among ftones, contrary to the practice of the 

 large fea-tiirde, which lays them upon fand. All I can fay to 

 this is, that I have feen them but feldom, and always upon 

 fand, but never among ftones. The fifh itfelf is a very dry and 

 coarfe food, very different from that delicate fpecies which 

 comes from the Weftlndies, if the difference does not lie a great 

 deal in the cookery. At the time that I ate of this animal, 

 1 was going to view the junction of the Indian Ocean with- 

 out the Straits of Babelmandeb, and the wind letting in con- 

 trary, 



