JUNE 
189 
out of a box about a foot high, several times ; but how he 
did it I don't know ; for he does not seem at all adapted for 
scaling walls or crawling up a perpendicular. I bored a hole 
through the edge of his shelly and tied him with a string to 
the fence of the fields thinking he would there enjoy him- 
self ; but one day^ I found my poor tortoise dead^ killed^ as 
I supposed, by the heat of the sun. Another that I caught^ 
I fastened in the same manner to a stake by the side of a 
spring, giving him scope enough to immerse himself in it. I 
often found him, with his head and fore parts exposed, and 
the rest of his body in the mud_, quite stil], and apparently 
enjoying his situation ; he lived in this way some time, and 
at last broke the string, and I saw him no more. I have 
never seen this species exceed the size of the one before us, 
about six inches in length of the upper shell. I once 
saw a tortoise taken in one of our streams, which was twelve 
or fourteen inches long ; but I believe it was of a different 
species : I had no opportunity of examining it. They lay 
their eggs in the sand on the banks of the rivers, leaving 
them to be hatched by the sun's warmth. Farwell informs 
me that he has often been engaged in digging up the eggs of 
tortoises from the depth of a foot and a half in sand, and 
that once for a frolic, he boiled and ate some ; they were 
about the size of sparrows' eggs, from which he says, he 
could not distinguish them in taste and appearance ; they 
were covered with a brittle shell. He has seen the young on 
these warm sand-beaches, from the size of a dollar up- 
wards. The eggs are to be found at about this season of the 
year. 
C. — Here are some Agarics which look like Mushrooms ; 
are they so ? - 
F. — Yes ; these are true Mushrooms f Agaricus Cam- 
pestris J, and very large ones : they are extremely scarce 
here : I do not remember ever having seen the mushroom 
