at the English Presidencies of India, and in Australia. There is not a four-footed animal, a voyager tells us, the flesh of which the Japanese esteem like that of the kecame, or turtle.

The flesh of the turtle is thus, we find, a universal food, if we except some of the States of Europe, which do not seem to appreciate it as a delicacy. I may add that this has been so in all ages. Diodorus of Sicily, Pliny, and Strabo speak of it. The former named "Cheloniphages," certain people inhabiting islands at the entry of the Red Sea, whose principal occupation was catching turtle.

The flesh is cooked in all ways. It is made into soup; it is roasted; it is made into fricassees, stews, and pies. The eggs, intestines, bones, all are employed, and esteemed excellent.

There are in the turtle two pieces of flesh very white, compared to knuckles of veal. It may be larded and made into fricandeaux and patés, equal to those of Rouen or Pontoise. The turtle is, as it were, the fry of the sea, for every part of the flesh is edible. The bones, being easily saturated with the gravy, are left in the ragouts which are made, and the fat, which is very fluid, serves instead of butter or lard. The two most choice food preparations of the turtle in the West Indies are the soup and the boucan or plastron. The soup made there is flavoured with sherry, and seasoned with strong spices, capsicums, ginger, cloves, and nutmeg. It is considered to be excellent when, after having eaten, one is obliged to rest with the mouth wide open, and cool the fevered palate with madeira or port. So that to appreciate this fiery soup, the taste has to be acquired.

The plastron, or boucaneered turtle, is made by

mincing the flesh fine and cooking it in its own shell. Here is the recipe given for preparing and cooking it: "The plastron or buckler is the shell of the belly, on which is left three or four inches of flesh, with all the fat, this being green, and of a very delicate flavour. The plastron is placed in the oven. It is seasoned with lemon juice, capsicum or cayenne, salt, pepper, cloves, and eggs beaten up. The oven ought not to be too hot, as the flesh of the turtle being tender it should be cooked slowly. While it is baking the flesh must be pierced from time to time with a wooden skewer, so that the gravy may penetrate all parts. The shell is sent up to table, and the meat carved out from it. I have never eaten anything more appetizing or better flavoured." This is not the recipe of a royal chef de cuisine, or of an ordinary cook, but of Father Labat, a Dominican monk, and we know that in all that relates to the table, and especially the food of fast-days, monks are the authorities. The old buccaneers from whom this dish was named-having no ovens, cooked their turtle in a trench covered with lighted charcoal, and this mode of cooking was said to be preferable. But in whatever manner dressed, all agree that the flesh of the turtle is an excellent and palatable food.

Green turtle soup is now manufactured in America. and the West Indies. A manufactory at Key West, Florida, puts up in air-tight cans for exportation 200,000 lbs. yearly, and employs 10 vessels and 60 men in collecting the turtle. It is sent to England and Cuba chiefly. At Jamaica some factories are also doing a good business in a preparation worthy of the gastronomic patronage of an aldermanic banquet, so rich is it in green. fat and calipee, calipash, and those delicate gelatinous morsels appertaining to the fins. A steady supply of

turtle is obtained monthly through the West India and Pacific steamers from Colon, besides those brought from the Caymanas. 5484 lbs. of prepared turtle, valued at £356, were shipped from Jamaica in 1874.

Jamaica is the principal mart in the West Indies to which the turtle are brought from the coasts of the Gulf of Mexico, from Trinidad to Vera Cruz, principally from Honduras and the Tortugas. From Jamaica they are sent to England and the United States.

Although all the varieties of the edible turtle are palatable, yet they are distinguished by the localities from whence they are obtained, and some are preferred to others. Those of the Bay of Honduras are most esteemed in England. Of the Cape Verd Islands, those of St. Vincent are considered the best. Dampier tells us that they are not so large as those of the American islands. The flesh is white and intermixed with the green fat, which is firm and of good flavour.

But it is not only the flesh that is useful; the fat, exposed to the sun, is converted into oil. When fresh, it is good for frying and for other culinary uses, and when it becomes rancid, as it is very fluid and penetrating, it serves to oil leather, to burn, and to lubricate machinery. It is not rare to obtain 100 lbs. of oil from a single turtle. Oil is obtained from two species of turtle very abundant in the river Orinoco-Peltocephalus Tracaya, and another. The gigantic luth is famous on account of its valuable oil.

The eggs of most of the species of sea-tortoises or turtle are excellent, being both nutritious and agreeable to the taste. They have no firm shell, and the white or albuminous portion does not harden on cooking. A native of Brazil will consume as many as 20 or 30 at a meal, and a European will eat a dozen for breakfast. They make an

excellent omelet. The Indians frequently eat them raw, mixed with their cassava flour. A large quantity of rich oil is made from the immense deposits of turtle eggs on the banks of the Orinoco and Amazon; each turtle lays from 100 to 200 eggs. Several thousand persons are occupied on the banks of these rivers preparing this mantega or turtle oil as a local article of commerce.

CHAPTER II.

MOTHER-OF-PEARL AND ITS USES.

Composition of nacreous shells-Their extensive employment in art and manufacture-Explanation of prismatic colours-Varieties of mother-ofpearl shells entering into commerce-Purposes to which they are applied -Statistics of imports-Diving for the shells in the Pacific-Pearl fishery of Western Australia-Papier-mâche work-Other nacreous and iridescent shells used-The ear-shells or Haliotids.

AMONG the products obtained from the sea which are used by the artist and art-manufacturer, mother-of-pearl and other nacreous and iridescent shells form important articles of commerce, to which we will now direct attention.

The mother-of-pearl shells which our manufacturers transform into so many articles of ornament and utility, are those of the large oysters, obtained in many different parts of the world, chiefly the shells of Meleagrina margaritifera.

Shells are composed of carbonate of lime, with a small proportion of animal matter. The source of this lime is to be looked for in their food. The texture of shells is various

and characteristic. Some when broken present a dull lustre like marble or china, and are termed porcelaneous; others are pearly or nacreous; some have a fibrous structure; some are horny, and others are glassy and transparent.