[Footnote 153: This word in the text is probably a misprint for
_Terrapin_, a trivial name for a species of land or fresh-water
tortoise, found also in the warmer parts of North America--E.]

In these islands there are also some green snakes, and great numbers of
remarkably tame turtle-doves, very fat, and excellent eating. There are
large channels between some of these islands, capable of receiving ships
of moderate burden. On the shoals there grows great abundance of
sea-weed, called _turtle-grass_, owing to which these channels abound in
_green turtles_ or sea-tortoises. There are several kinds of turtles or
sea-tortoises, as the _Trunk, Loggerhead, Hawksbill_, and _Green_
turtles. The first is larger than the rest, and has a rounder and higher
back shell, but is neither so wholesome nor so well tasted; and the same
may be said of the Loggerhead, which feeds on moss from the rocks, and
has its name from its large head. The Hawksbill, so named from having a
long small mouth, like the beak of a hawk, is the smallest species, and
is that which produces the so-much-admired tortoise-shell, of which
cabinets, boxes, combs, and other things are made in Europe, and of this
shell each has from three to four pounds, though some have less. The
flesh of this kind is but indifferent, yet better than that of the
Loggerheads; though these, which are taken between the _Sambellos_ and
_Portobello_, make those who eat the flesh purge and vomit excessively,
and the same is observed of some other fish in the West Indies.

The laying time of the sea-tortoises is about May, June, and July, a
little sooner or later, and they lay three times each season, eighty or
ninety eggs each time, which are round and as large as an hen's egg, but
covered only with a thin white skin, having no shell. When a tortoise
goes on shore to lay, she is usually an hour before she returns, as she
always chuses her place above high-water mark, where she makes a large