32 A NATURALIST ON DESERT ISLANDS. 



But after this there is a huge blank ; we know no more 

 of them until at some future time an infinitely small 

 percentage returns again to the dry land to start once 

 more the life-cycle. Of the life, the habits, the rate of 

 growth, and the whereabouts of the juvenile turtles we 

 know as little as we used to know of the metamorphoses 

 of the common eel. It is the almost universal belief 

 that the eggs of the turtle* are hatched by the agency 

 of the sun, which conveniently keeps the sand at a nice 

 warm incubating temperature. If you sprawl on the 

 slopes of a tropical beach and run your fingers through the 

 burning sand, the deduction, inaccurate as it is, is very 

 excusable. Unfortunately for the inference, the mother 

 turtle scoops out a deep hole, and ultimately reaches a 

 level at which the sand is not only uniformly moist but 

 unifonnly cool. In this cool but equable temperature, 

 the eggs, covered of course with sand, remain for a time 

 which, so far as I am aware, has not been accurately 

 determined. Brown Goode says the hatching is done 

 in about three weeks. Agassiz, on the other hand, says 

 it cannot be less than seven. Possibly the time varies 

 according to the different species, or different latitudes ; 

 I could get no very definite information on this point 

 from the islanders. 



What is known for certain, however, is that the moment 

 the wrinkly-looking, leathery- white eggs are hatched, 

 the young rush to the sea. The islanders had seen this 

 interesting performance over and over again, and on 

 many occasions had carried the newly-hatched turtles 

 a little way from the beach up into the woods. Here 

 they would deliberately place the turtle with its back to 

 the sea, with the idea of making the youngster lose its 

 bearings. The result was always the same. In a moment 

 the little beast had swung round in the right direction 

 and was toddling away, fast as its baby legs could carry it, 



* We are talking more especially of the green turtle {Chelone midas), 

 but the same thing applies to the hawksbill {Eretmochelys imbricata) 

 and the loggerhead {T hollas sochdys caretta), and all three visit the 

 shores of Swan Island. 



