of these that was brought into the archbishop's palace at Lambeth, about the year 1633, was still living, in the year 1753, and then was thought to have died from neglect, rather than from old age. In the year 1765, a tortoise was living in the garden of Samuel Simmons, Esq. at Landwich, in Kent, which was known to have been there eighty.six years; but how long before that period, no one could say with authority. It was on the premises before Mr. Simmons took them, and was supposed to have been brought there from the West Indies, by the former possessor. This creature received a considerable injury about thirty years before it died, from the wheel of a loaded waggon, which went over it and cracked its shell.

It was always extremely alarmed when surprized by a sudden shower of rain, during its peregrinations for food, shuffling away on the first sprinklings, and always, if possible, running its head up into a corner.-It thus became an excellent barometer; for if it walked elate, and, as it were, on tiptoe, feeding with great earnestness, in a morning, there was almost invariably rain before night.

Mr. White, of Selbourne, attended accurately to the manners of one that was in the possession of a lady of his acquaintance (who resided in Sussex) upwards of thirty years. It regularly retired under ground, about the middle of November, from whence it did not come forth until

abont the middle of April. Its appetite was always most voracious in the height of summer, eating very little either in the spring or autumn. Milky plants, such as lettuces, dandelions, and sow-thistles were its principal food.

Mr. White was much pleased with the sagacity of the above-mentioned animal, in distinguishing those persons from whom it was accusomed to receive attention. Whenever the good old lady came in sight, who had waited on it for more than thirty years, it always hobbled, with all the alacrity it could use, towards its berrefactress, whilst to strangers it was altogether inattentive. Thus, not only "the ox knoweth his owner and the ass his master's crib," but the most torpid of creatures distinguished the hand that fed it, and exhibited marks of gratitude not always to be found in superior orders of animal beings. It never stirred out after dark, and very frequently appeared abroad for a few hours only in the middle of the day; in wet days it never came at all from its retreat. Although this Tortoise loved warm weather, yet he carefully avoided the hot sun, since his thick chell, when once heated, must have become extreme'y painful, and probably dangerous to him. He therefore spent the more sultry hours under the shade of a large cabbage leaf, or amidst the waving stems of an asparagus bed. But, as he endeavoured to avoid the heat in the summer, he improved the faint autumnal beams by getting

within the reflection of a fruit-tree wall; and taught by that wonderful instinct with which kind Providence endues all animals, he frequently inclined his shell, by tilting it against the wall, to collect and admit every feeble

ray.

This animal was at last given to Mr. White, and in the month of March, 1780, he dug it out of its winter residence in order to convey it to his own house in Hampshire. The spring was a backward one; but the animal was become sufficiently recovered from its torpidity to express its resentment for the disturbance by hissing. It was packed in a box, and carried eighty miles in post chaises. The rattle and hurry of the journey so roused it, that, when it was turned out on a border in Mr. White's garden, it walked twice down to the bottom. In the evening, however, the weather being cold, it buried itself in the loose mould, and remained concealed for above a month. Towards the time of its coming forth, it opened a breathing place in the ground near its head. requiring, no doubt, a free respiration as it became more lively. On the twenty-first of April, it heaved up the mould and put out its head, and on the following morning, issued forth from its retreat, and walked about until four o'clock in the afternoon.

The Great Mediterranean Turtle is the largest of the turtle kind with which we are acquainted. It is found from five to eight feet

long, and from six to nine hundred pounds weight. But, unluckily, its utility bears no proportion to its size; as it is unfit for food, and sometimes poisons those who eat it. The shell also, which is a tough strong integument, resembling a hide, is unfit for all serviceable purposes. One of these animals was taken in the year 1729, at the mouth of the Loire, a river of France, in nets that were not designed for so large a capture. This Turtle, which was of enormous strength, by its own struggles involved itself in the nets in such a manner as to be incapable of doing mischief; yet, even thus shackled, it appeared terrible to the fishermen, who were at first for flying; but finding it impotent, they gathered courage to drag it on shore, where it made a most horrible bellowing; and was to be heard at half a mile's distance, They were still further intimidated by its nauseous and pestilential breath, which so powerfully affected them, that they were near fainting. This animal wanted but four inches of being eight feet long, and was above two feet broad, its shell more resembled leather than the shell of a tortoise; and, unlike all other animals of this kind, it was furnished with teeth in each jaw, one rank behind another, like those of a shark; its feet also, different from the rest of its kind, wanted claws; and the tail was quite disengaged from the shell, and fifteen inches long, more resembling that of a quadruped than a Tortoise.

This animal was then unknown upon the coasts of France; and was supposed to have been brought into the European seas in some India ship that was wrecked upon her return. Since that, however, two or three of these animals have been taken upon the coasts; two in particular on those of Cornwall, in the year 1756, the largest of which weighed eight hundred pounds; and one upon the Isle of Rhea, bat two years before, that weighed between seven and eight hundred. One, most probably of this kind also, was caught near Scarborough, in England, and a good deal of company was invited to feast upon it, a gentleman, who was one of the guests, told the company that it was a Mediterranean Turtle, and not wholesome; but a person who was willing to satisfy his appetite at the risk of his life, eat of it; he was seized with a violent vomiting and purging; but his constitution overpowered the malignity of the poison.

These, however, are a formidable and useless kind, if compared to the Turtle caught in the South Seas and the Indian Ocean. These are of different kinds; not only unlike each other in form but furnishing man with very different advantages. They are usually distinguished by sailors into four kinds; the Trunk Turtle, the Loggerhead, the Hawksbill, and the Green Turtle.

The Trunk Turtle is commonly larger than