76 Makine Tortoises. REPTILES. Marine Tortoises. 
an article of commerce. The introduction of turtle as 
an article of luxury into this country dates more than 
one hundred years back. The fat of certain species, 
when fresh, is used instead of butter or oil in cooking ; 
and tliat of those species which smell of musk is em- 
ployed in preparing leather and giving it suppleness, as 
well as for burning in lamps. This fatty or oily matter 
is so abundant in these animals, that frequently thirty 
pints of it have been extracted from one individual. 
The eggs of the greater number of species are very 
much sought after as affording an excellent article of 
food. The white part or albumen does not coagulate 
by heat, but the yolk is much esteemed. Even in the 
musky species the eggs are of excellent flavour. Mr. 
Holbrook informs us, that in the Tortugas Islands 
(four or five uninhabited sandbanks in the Caribaean 
Sea, visited only by turtles and wreckers, but which 
are a favourite haunt of the Green Turtle), the eggs of 
this species are taken wholesale. “ The ‘ egger,’ ” he 
says “ uses a small stiff rod, with which he ‘ probes ’ 
the sand in those places where Turtles usually deposit 
their eggs ; and in this way myriads are collected, as 
may be supposed, when it is recollected that many 
hundreds of turtles lay their eggs on a small space of 
sandbank. The ‘ eggers,’ however, do not confine 
their depredations to the nests of the Green Turtles, 
but they seize upon those of all other species, as well 
as upon the eggs of thousands of sea-birds that seek 
the same localities during the breeding season.” 
The horny lamime or plates which cover the cara- 
pace and breastplate of the Marine tortoises can veiy 
readily be detached. In the greater number of species 
they are too thin to be employed with advantage in 
the arts or manufactures ; but those of the Hawk’s- 
bill Turtle {Chelonia imhricata) are thicker, stronger, 
and more transparent than those of any other species, 
and are accordingly much esteemed and made great 
use of for ornamental purposes, under the name of 
“ Tortoise-shell.” This substance appears to differ 
essentially from horn, because, as Messrs. Dumeril 
and Bibron remark, it is not formed of parallel fibres, 
and because it appears rather an exudation of solidified, 
muco-albuminous matter, the tissue of which is homo- 
geneous, but which can be cut and polished in every 
way like horn. Besides, they add, it is susceptible of 
being softened by the application of heat, and then can 
be made to assume various forms, which it preserves 
after cooling. Thus, though in the rough state these 
plates are fragile and brittle, when properly treated, 
from the fineness of its tissue, its compactness, the 
admirable polish and impressions it can receive, its 
ductility, the facility with which it can be moulded, 
and its fragments soldered together and amalgamated 
by means of their own substance reduced to powder, 
tortoise-shell is in great demand in the manufacture of 
ornamental objects of furniture, and has become an 
article of considerable commerce. In order to obtain 
the plates from the carapace of this animal, it is onl}" 
necessary to subject the shell to the action of heat. 
According to Dumeril and Bibron’s account of this 
process, the convex part of the carapace is submitted 
to the effect of a strong fire, by which means the plates 
start up and are then detached with great facility. In 
his account of Ceylon, Sir J. Emerson Tennent says, 
that as the shell becomes clouded and milky after the 
animal’s death, the natives of that island, in order to 
take it freshly coloured, catch the turtles as they come 
to deposit their eggs, and “ suspend them over fires, 
till the heat makes the plates on their dorsal shields 
start from the bone of the carapace ; after which the 
creature is' permitted to escape to the water.” In the 
rough state these plates vary much in colour. Some 
are transparent, and are called “ white, or spotless ;” 
others are marked with a reddish-brown colour, more 
or less deep, which is disposed in round, irregular 
spots, or in streaks, and are called “ speckled ;” others, 
again, are quite brown or black. The ancients 
appear to have been exceedingly fond of the use of 
this beautiful substance in the decoration of their 
houses, apartments, &c. This luxury was carried to 
an excessive degree by the Eomans in the time of 
Augustus. Bruce, in his Travels, informs us that 
“ the Egyptians dealt largely with Kome in this article 
of commerce. Pliny tells us that the cutting of them 
for veneering or inlaying was first practised by Carvi- 
lius Pollio, from which we would presume that the 
Romans were ignorant of the Arabian and Egyptian 
art of separating the lamina by fire placed in the inside 
of the shell when the meat is taken out. Martial says 
that beds were inlaid with it. Juvenal, and Apuleius 
in his tenth book, mentions that the Indian bed was 
all over shining with tortoise shell on the outside, and 
swelling with stuffing of down within. The immense 
use made of it in Rome may be guessed by what we 
learn from Velleius Paterculus, who says, that when 
Alexandria was taken by Julius Cmsar, the magazines 
or warehouses were so full of this article, that he pro- 
posed to have made it the principal ornament of his 
triumj)h, as he did ivory afterwards, when triumphing 
for having happily finished the African war. This, 
too, in more modern times, was a great article in the 
trade to China, and I have always been exceedingly 
surprised, since nearly the whole of the Arabian Gulf 
is comprehended in the charter of the East India Com- 
pany, that they do not make an experiment of fishing 
both pearls and tortoises.” 
Such being the value of Marine tortoises, no wonder 
that their capture is a business of great importance, and 
that many methods are employed for that purpose. On 
some coasts advantage is taken of the usual time when 
the females land upon the desert islands to deposit their 
eggs. Their time for doing this, as has been already 
mentioned, is the night. The turtlers, who frequent 
these places, wait in perfect silence till they have left 
the water; they then intercept them, and with their 
hands, or with a lever when they are too heavy, turn 
them on their back. As they cannot turn or “ right 
themselves” when once placed in that position, they 
remain there till morning, when the men return and 
carry them ofi' to their boats. They are often left in 
this same position, on the deck of the vessels on board 
which they are taken, for twenty days ; the only pre- 
caution adopted being to wet them with sea-water 
several times a day. They are then deposited in the 
preserves or pens, or, as they are called in America, 
crawls, made for the purpose of keeping them, and 
