All day long the wooded slope of Ball’s Hill next the 
river was alive with Turtles on their way from or to the 
water. I saw three species, the Painted Tprtoise being the 
most numerous, the small Snapping Turtle next in mumbers, 
while of the Land Tortoise I found but one. I could hear 
many that I could not see, making a continuous, low rustling 
among the dried leaves. 
At about 4 P. M. I came on a large Painted Tortoise 
laying her eggs in an opening by the side of a foot-path 
on the crest of the ridge above the cabin. She had dug a 
round hole five or six inches deep and about an inch in diameter 
in hard gravelly soil. At least one egg (and probably more) 
lay in the bottom of the hole when we discovered her. Within 
the next fifteen minutes we saw her lay seven eggs at 
intervals varying from one to three minutes. During this 
period she stood with her anus directly over the hole. The 
eggs were exuded with scarcely a perceptivle effort. They 
all had a long deep groove on one side , as if they had been 
indented by the pressure of a knife blade held parallel with 
the long axis of the egg. All of them dropped squarely 
in the hole and each,as soon as it fell,was pushed down firmly 
and rather forcibly by the Turtle’s hind feet, nothing 
whatever being put between them. The presence of four people 
crouched in a circle around the Turtle and talking and 
coughing loudly did not interfere in the least with the 
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