THE LUTH, OR LEATHERY TURTLE. 21 
and brown. The ribs are not fully united together until the animal has attained a rather 
advanced age. 
We now arrive at the Turtles, a group that can be distinguished by many unmistakable 
marks. Their feet are very long, those of the fore-limbs being longest, flat, expanded at the 
end, and often furnished with flattened claws. In fact, the feet are modified into fins or 
paddles, in order to suit the habits of these reptiles, which only feel themselves at home 
in the water, and are often met at sea some hundreds of miles from the nearest land. The 
ribs of the Turtles, instead of being united throughout their length, as in the tortoises, are 
only wide, flat, and united for part of their length, the remaining portions being free, and 
radiating like the spokes of a wheel. 
DOGANIA . — Dogania subplanus. 
These reptiles inhabit the seas of the torrid and the temperate zones, and their food is 
mostly of a vegetable nature, consisting of various seaweeds, but there are a few species which 
are animal feeders, and eat creatures such as mollusks, star-fisli, and other marine inhabitants. 
Several species are remarkably excellent for food, and caught in great numbers for the table, 
while others are equally useful in supplying the beautiful translucent substance known by the 
name of tortoise-shell. Their head is rather globular, and their jaws are naked and horny, and 
are capable of inflicting a severe wound. 
i 
The first example of the true Turtles is the Luth, or Leathery Turtle ( Dermatoclielys 
coriacea ), so called from the soft leather-like substance with which its shell is covered. 
This species is found in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, where it grows to a very 
large size, often weighing more than sixteen hundred pounds, and measuring eight feet in 
length. Being a very good swimmer, owing to the great development of the limbs, especially 
the fore-legs, it ventures far out to sea, and is occasionally driven to strange countries. Speci- 
mens of this reptile have been taken on the coast of Prance, and on other shores. These 
individuals were rather large, weighing about seven or eight hundred pounds, 
