DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11637#0062
48 TRAVELS IN UPPER
an excrescence, in which the nostrils are placed,
and which gives the muzzle some resemblance to
the snout of a hog. The shell is roundish, and
covered with asperities, but flattened and smooth
at the edges. The under part of the body, that is
to say, all which the shell does not cover, is white :
the upper part is of a greenish gray: the head is
gray, mottled with a whitish intermixture.
Is it a sea-turtle, or a fresh-water species ? For-
skal appears to consider it as an animal belonging
to the Nile, because he says it is rare in this river *.
But, supposing it to inhabit the Mediterranean,
may it not sometimes enter the river with the wa-
ter of the sea, wThen, driven by violent gales from
the north, it comes to mingle with that of the
Nile, imparting to it a saltness, which renders it
very unpleasant to drink even above Rossctta ?
This being a circumstance of unfrequcnt occur-
rence, it would necessarily follow, that the turtle
would seldom make its appearance along the banks
of the Kile. I know well, that naturalists have
agreed to consider {informed feet, such as this tur-
tle has, to be a distinguishing character of the salt-
water species, and obtuse and contracted feet, to
be peculiar to those of the fresh-water: but the
methods of natural history are not those of nature,
* In Nik rarior. p. 9.
whom
an excrescence, in which the nostrils are placed,
and which gives the muzzle some resemblance to
the snout of a hog. The shell is roundish, and
covered with asperities, but flattened and smooth
at the edges. The under part of the body, that is
to say, all which the shell does not cover, is white :
the upper part is of a greenish gray: the head is
gray, mottled with a whitish intermixture.
Is it a sea-turtle, or a fresh-water species ? For-
skal appears to consider it as an animal belonging
to the Nile, because he says it is rare in this river *.
But, supposing it to inhabit the Mediterranean,
may it not sometimes enter the river with the wa-
ter of the sea, wThen, driven by violent gales from
the north, it comes to mingle with that of the
Nile, imparting to it a saltness, which renders it
very unpleasant to drink even above Rossctta ?
This being a circumstance of unfrequcnt occur-
rence, it would necessarily follow, that the turtle
would seldom make its appearance along the banks
of the Kile. I know well, that naturalists have
agreed to consider {informed feet, such as this tur-
tle has, to be a distinguishing character of the salt-
water species, and obtuse and contracted feet, to
be peculiar to those of the fresh-water: but the
methods of natural history are not those of nature,
* In Nik rarior. p. 9.
whom