378 
pliny's fatueal history. 
[Book IX. 
able cottage ;^ and among tlie islands of tlie Red Sea, the na- 
vigation is mostly carried on in boats formed of these shells. 
They are to be caught in many ways ; but they are generally 
taken when they have come up to the surface of the water 
just before midday, a season at which they experience great 
delight in floating on the calm surface, with the back entirely 
out of the water. Here the delightful sensations^^ which at- 
tend a free respiration beguile them to such a degree, and 
render them so utterly regardless of their safety, that their 
shell becomes dried up by the heat of the sun, so much so, in- 
deed, that they are unable to descend, and, having to float 
against their will, become an easy prey to the fishermen. It 
is said also, that they leave the water at night for the purpose 
of feeding, and eat with such avidity as to quite glut them- 
selves : upon which, they become weary, and the moment 
that, on their return in the morning, • they reach the sea, 
they fall asleep on the surface of the water. The noise 
of their snoring betrays them, upon which the fishermen 
stealthily swim towards the animals, three to each turtle ; 
two of them, in a moment, throw it on its back, while a third 
slings a noose around it, as it lies face upwards, and then 
some more men, who are ready on shore, draw it to land. 
In the Phoenician Sea they are taken without the slightest 
difficulty, and, at stated periods of the year, come of their own 
accord to the river Eleutherus,^^ in immense numbers. The tur- 
tle has no teeth, but the edge of the mouth is sharp, the upper 
part shutting down over the lower just like the lid of a box. 
In the sea it lives upon shell-fish,^ and such is the strength of its 
jaws, that it is able to break stones even; when on shore, it 
feeds upon herbage. The female turtle lays eggs like those of 
birds, one hundred in number ; these she buries on the dry 
land, and covering them over with earth, pats it down with her 
breast, and then having thus rendered it smooth, sits on them 
during the night. The young are hatched in the course of a 
Cuvier says that this is evidently a gross exaggeration on the part of 
some traveller; and Ajasson remarks, that the very largest turtle known 
does not exceed five feet in length, and four in breadth. In such a case, 
the superficies of the calapash or shell would be only from twenty to 
twenty-four feet, and this, be it remembered, in one of the very largest size. 
98 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 3, has a similar passage. 
99 See B. V. c. 17. 
1 Aristotle, Hist. Anim. B. viii. c. 3, states to a similar effect. 
