In the Ph?nician Sea they are taken without the slightest difficulty, and, at stated periods of the year, come of their own accord to the river Eleutherus, in immense numbers. The turtle has no teeth, but the edge of the mouth is sharp, the upper part shutting down over the lower like the lid of a box. In the sea it lives upon shell-fish, and such is the 134 strength of its jaws, that it is able to break stones; when on shore, it feeds upon herbage. The female turtle lays eggs like those of birds, one hundred in number; these she buries on the dry land, covers them over with earth, pats it down with her breast, and sits on them during the night. The young are hatched in the course of a year. Some persons are of opinion that they hatch their eggs by means of the eyes, by merely looking at them. The Troglodyt? have turtles with horns,[131] which resemble the branches of a lyre; they are large, but movable, and assist the animal like so many oars while swimming. The name of this fine but rarely-found turtle, is “chelyon;” for the rocks, from the sharpness of their points, frighten away the Chelonophagi, while the Troglodyt?, whose shores these animals frequent, worship them as sacred. There are some land turtles the shells of which are used for the purposes of art. They are found in the deserts of Africa, in the parts where the scorched sands are more especially destitute of water, and subsist, it is believed, upon the moisture of the dews. No other animal is to be found there.
Carvilius Pollio, a man of prodigal habits and ingenious in inventing the refinements of luxury, was the first to cut the shell of the tortoise into lamin?, or thin slices, and to veneer beds and cabinets with it.