3gO DESCRIPTION OF THE MUSEUM. 



with a brown skin which resembles leather ; its 

 flesh is good food. 



The true tortoise, or green tortoise, which is 

 nearly as large as the preceding, and which in 

 general weighs eight hundred pounds, feeds on 

 sea-weeds, and inhabits in great numbers all 

 parts of the ocean near the equator. Its eggs, 

 which it deposits in the sand, and its flesh are 

 considered a wholesome food, and are an im- 

 portant resource for the navigators in the torrid 

 zones. This species is caught with nets, and 

 dragged under water to the shore ; when brought 

 to land it is fastened to clumps, and four men are 

 often requisite to lift one of them. 



The caretta (testudo imbricata), of nearly the 

 same size as the former, furnishes the tortoise 

 shell employed in the arts; it is found in the 

 seas which border on warm countries; but the 

 greater number are obtained from Ascension 

 island, where, after traversing the ocean for two 

 or three hundred leagues, they resort in great 

 numbers to lay their eggs. When they come on 

 shore to deposit them in the sand, the people 

 engaged in catching them, turn them on their 

 backs, and as the tortoise in that position is ut- 



ascertaining the species are taken from the number, the form, and the 

 colour of these scales. The carapace of the tortoise is very strong, 

 and can support a prodigious weight without breaking. 



