214 
NATUJt AL HISTORY. 
_ another fifteen days, she repeats the same; three times in 
' all, using the same precautions every time for their safety. 
In about twenty-four or twenty-five days after laying the 
eggs are hatched by the heat of the sun ; and the young 
turtles, being about as big as quails, are seen bursting from 
the sand, as if earth-born, and running directly to the sea, with 
instinct only for their guide ; but, to their great misfortune, it 
often happens that their strength being small, the surges of 
the sea, for some few days, beat them back upon the shore. 
Thus exposed, they remain a prey to thousands of birds that 
haunt the coasts; and these stooping down upon them, carry 
oft the greatest part, and sometimes the whole brood, before 
they have strength sufficient to withstand the waves or dive 
to the bottom. They are generally caught in two ways, by 
nets, and by what is called pegging. The peg is of iron, and 
something larger than a tenpenny nail, and without a barb; 
to this is affixed an iron socket, in which is inserted a long 
pole, and the peg is held by a tolerably strong line. When 
the turtle is struck, the hunter disengages the pole, and 
draws the turtle to the boat by the line. 
There is yet another way which, though seemingly awk- 
ward, is said to be attended with very great success. A good 
diver places himself at the head o/ the boat ; and when the 
turtles are observed, which they sometimes are in great 
numbers, asleep on the surface, he immediately quits the 
vessel at about fifty yards’ distance, and, keeping still under 
water, directs his passage to where the turtle was seen, and 
coming up beneath, seizes it by the hind-tin; the animal 
awaking, struggles to get free ; and by this both are kept 
at the surface until the boat arrives to take them in. 
The shell of Testaceous Fishes may be considered as 
an habitation supplied by nature. It is an hard stony sub- 
stance, made by some in the manner of a wall. Part of 
the stony substance the animal derives from outward ob- 
jects, and the fluids of the animal itself furnish the cement. 
These united make that firm covering which shell-fish ge- 
nerally reside in till they die. 
But, in order to give a more exact idea of the manner in 
which sea-shells are formed, we must have recourse to an 
animal that lives upon land, with the formation of whose 
shell we are best acquainted. This is the garden-snail that 
carries its box upon its back. 
To begin with the animal in its earliest state, and trace 
the progress of its shell from the time it first appears. The 
instant the young snail leaves the egg, it carries its shell or 
its box on its back. It does not leave the egg till it i# 
