224 
THE LIVING WORLD. 
of the Floridas, or in estuaries and rivers. Some turtlers are in the habit of 
setting great nets across the entrance of streams, so as to answer the purpose 
either at the flow or at the ebb of the waters. These nets are formed of very 
large meshes, into which the turtles partially enter, when, the more they attempt 
to extricate themselves, the more they get entangled. Others harpoon them in 
the usual manner. 
“ When I was in the Floridas, several turtlers assured me, that any turtle 
taken from the depositing ground, and carried on the deck of a vessel several 
hundred miles, would, if then let loose, certainly be met with at the same spot, 
either immediately after or in the following breeding season. Should this prove 
true, and it certainly may, how much will be enhanced the belief of the student 
in the uniformity and solidity of Nature’s arrangements, when he finds that the 
turtle, like a migratory bird, returns to the same locality, with perhaps a delight 
similar to that experienced by the traveller, who, after visiting distant countries, 
once more returns to the bosom of his cherished family! ” 
The Leather Turtle (Dermatochelys coriacea), often called the Luth , is also 
one of the gigantic habitants of the sea, perhaps the latest of living species, 
but it is seldom met with and there¬ 
fore its habits are little known. The 
species spoken of by Audubon, which 
he calls the trunk turtle , may be the 
luth , as this animal has a carapax 
somewhat resembling the deerskin- 
covered trunks which were in com¬ 
mon use some years ago, on which 
account it has sometimes been called 
the trunk back , but its breeding hab¬ 
its are not so well known as the 
luth or leather turtle. above account would lead us to be¬ 
lieve. Woods emphatically states 
that it does not visit the Tortugas for breeding purposes, and furthermore 
declares that the breeding places of the leather turtle are unknown. 
An English officer, name not given, has furnished an account of the capture 
of a female leather back in the Ye river by some Burmese fisherman. He states 
that she was apprehended on a sandy beach while in the act of depositing her 
eggs, one hundred of which had already been laid. He represents her strength 
as being so great that it required the combined efforts of twelve men to 
arrest and carry her into the village. The eggs were spherical and i $4 inches 
in diameter, and when cooked were very agreeable to the taste, as was also the 
flesh, although it has heretofore been regarded as not only most disagreeable but 
also poisonous. Nearly one thousand eggs, in various stages of development, 
were taken from the body. Her length was six feet two and one-half inches. 
Another large specimen was taken in a mackerel net off Cape Ann, and pur¬ 
chased by the Boston Society of Natural History, the flesh of which was eaten 
by members of the Society, and by them pronounced equal to that of the green 
turtle. Another specimen was taken some time before near the mouth of Boston 
harbor that measured eight feet in length, and weighed nearly one thousand 
pounds. The color of all these specimens was a deep black and glossed, some¬ 
what resembling the back of a porpoise. It differs from others of the turtle 
