14 
turtle. 
which they drop, in one night, above a hundred 
eggs. At this season they are so completely intent 
on performing this great command of nature, that 
they are totally regardless of surrounding objects, 
and would drop their eggs into a hat if held under 
them. If, however, they are disturbed before they 
begin to lay, they will forsake the place, and seek 
another. They lay their eggs at three, and some- 
times at four different times, there being fourteen 
days between every time ; consequently the broods 
are hatched at different times also. When they 
have laid all their eggs, which are about the size of 
tennis balls, and equally round, they cover them 
lightly with sand, that the sun may communicate 
to them a gentle warmth, and hatch their young. 
In about twenty or twenty-five days the young tur- 
tles are seen to rise out of the sand, and, guided by 
that instinct which never fails to direct them, march 
with a gentle pace to the water. But here they 
have to contend with an unruly element, by far too 
powerful for their little bodies ; and are for several 
days beat back again by the waves and left on shore. 
Thus exposed, they remain a prey to the birds that 
hover about the coasts, and so many are carried off, 
or destroyed by different means, before they have 
sufficient strength to make proper efforts against the 
surges and dive to the bottom, that out of two or 
three hundred eggs it is but seldom that more than 
a third escape. 
The turtle has been for several years held in the 
highest estimation in this country ; and such is the 
