§ IV Chelonian Reptiles
This animal has a small head, four feet, and a tail, which it can gather within the shell in such a way that the top and under part meet together, and so closely, that the greatest strength cannot separate them. The eye is destitute of an upper lid, the under one serving to defend that organ. The upper shell, composed of thirty-seven compartments, is convex, and so strong, that a loaded cart can pass over it without injuring the creature inside. In winter, Tortoises are said to bury themselves in the ground, or retire to some cavern or hole, which they line with moss, grass, and leaves, and where they pass in safe and solitary retirement the whole of this season. The Tortoise is very tenacious of life, and is no less remarkable for its longevity, as it is ascertained that one lived upwards of one hundred and twenty years in the garden of Lambeth Palace.
This animal is found in most of the countries near the Mediterranean Sea, in Corsica, Sardinia, and some of the islands of the Archipelago, as well as in many parts of the north of Africa.
Most of the Turtles are considered very delicate food, especially the green species. Some of them are so large as to weigh from four to eight hundred pounds. Dampier mentions an immensely large one that was caught at Port Royal, in the Bay of Campeachy. It was nearly six feet long, and four feet broad. A son of Captain Roch, a boy about ten years old, went in the shell, from the shore to his father’s ship, which was about a quarter of a mile distant.
Turtle generally ascend from the sea, and crawl on the beach, for the purpose of laying their eggs (which are as large sometimes as those of a common hen), sometimes to the number of fifty or sixty at a time. The young ones, as soon as they are hatched, crawl down to the water. Turtles are caught, when sleeping on land, by turning them on their backs; for as they cannot turn themselves over again, all means of escape is denied them. The lean of the Green Turtle tastes and looks like veal, without any fishy flavour. The fat is as green as grass, and very sweet. The introduction of Turtle as an article of food into England, appears to have taken place within the last eighty or ninety years. They are common in Jamaica, and in most of the islands of the East and West Indies. Green Turtles are sometimes caught on the shores of Europe, driven thither by stress of weather. In the year 1752, one, six feet long and four feet broad, weighing between eight and nine hundred pounds, was caught in the harbour of Dieppe, after a storm. In 1754, a still larger one, upwards of eight feet long, was caught near Antioche, and was carried to the Abbey of Longveau, near Vannes, in Brittany; and in the year 1810, a small one was caught amongst the submarine rocks near Christchurch, in Hampshire.
The reader will remember how delighted Robinson Crusoe was to find a large Turtle which, he says, contained three score eggs. Behold him dragging it home.
Has received its name from the peculiar formation of the upper jaw, which terminates in a curved point, like the beak of a bird of prey. It is smaller than the Green Turtle, the largest specimens being about three feet in length. Its flesh is a very indifferent, if not unwholesome, article of food; but the horny plates with which its back is covered, and which lie over one another like the slates on the roof of a house, are beautifully mottled, and constitute the well-known tortoiseshell of commerce, which is so much used for making combs and various ornamental articles. It is only the best kind of tortoiseshell, however, that is taken from the Hawk’s-bill Turtle. The shell that is usually seen is taken from commoner kinds. A very large quantity of tortoise-shell is imported into Europe every year, and the traffic in it forms a very important part of the trade of those countries in which turtles abound.
Has its back covered with a sort of leathery skin, instead of the horny plates of the other turtles. It is a very large species, measuring eight feet or more in length, and weighing as much as a thousand pounds. It is chiefly found in the Mediterranean; it is, however, occasionally found on the other coasts of Europe, and a few specimens, some of them weighing seven or eight hundred pounds, have been caught in England. The flesh is not considered good, and in some cases great suffering has been occasioned by eating it. In 1748, a Leathery Turtle, which had been caught near Scarborough, was purchased by a gentleman, who invited several friends to taste it. Though warned that the flesh was unwholesome, one of the guests ate some, but was seized soon after with dreadful sickness. This should be a warning to the curious to be careful how they “eat strange flesh.”