Chap. IX.] TURTLES. 293 



of such a size as to measure between four and five 

 feet in length ; and on one occasion, in riding along 

 the sea-shore north of Putlam, I saw a man in charge 

 of some sheep, resting under the shade of a turtle shell, 

 which he had erected on sticks to protect him from the 

 sun — almost verifying the statement of iElian, that in 

 the seas off Ceylon there are tortoises so large that 

 several persons may find ample shelter beneath a single 

 shell. 1 



The hawksbill-turtle 2 , which supplies the tortoise-shell 

 of commerce, was at former times taken in great num- 

 bers in the vicinity of Hambangtotte during the season 

 when they came to deposit their eggs. This gave rise 

 to the trade in tortoise-shell at Point de G alle, where it 

 is still manufactured into articles of ornament by the 

 Moors ; but the shell they employ is almost entirely 

 imported from the Maldives. 



If taken from the animal after death and decomposi- 

 tion, 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 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. 3 In illustration of the resistless influence 



1 "Tlktovtcli 5e &pa iv ravrrj rf} referred to some tradition con- 



SaAaTTr/, koI x e ^ uaL peyio-rai, nected with the gigantic fossilised 



wvirep ovv ra iXvrpa 6po<poi yivov- species discovered on the Sewalik 



Tar Kal ydp iari Kal irevrtKaiScKa Hills, the remains of which are now 



tttjx^p %v xeAccr/eioy, cos viroiKeiv ovk in the Museum at the East India 



d\iyovs, Kal robs rfkiovs irvpcaSe- House? 



vrdrovs airo(TT€y€i, Kal gkiolv aafxevois 2 Caretta imbricata, Linn. 



7ra/>6xe<." — Lib. xvi. c. 17. iElian 3 At Celebes, whence the finest 



copied this statement literatim from tortoise-shell is exported to China, 



Megasthenes, Indica Frag. lix. the natives kill the turtle by blows 



31. May not Megasthenes have on the head, and immerse the shell 



u 3 



