TURTLES. 
433 
THE GREEN TURTLE. (Chelonia mydat.) 
ALL the Turtles are considered very delicate food, espe- 
cially the green, the hawk's-bill, and the loggerhead. 
Some of them are so large, that they weigh from four hun- 
dred to eight hundred pounds. Dampier mentions an im- 
mensely large one that was caught at Port Royal, in the 
Bay of Carnpeachy. It was nearly six feet in width, and 
four feet in thickness. A son of Captain Roch, a boy of 
about ten years old, went in the shell, as in a boat, from 
the shore to his father's ship, lying about a quarter of a 
mile distant^ 
Turtle generally ascend from the sea, and crawl on the 
beach, either for food, or for laying their eggs, (which are 
as big sometimes as those of a common hen,) to the num- 
ber of fifty or sixty at a time. The young ones, as soon 
as they are hatched, crawl down to the water. Turtles 
