Ethel Ashton Edwards.
RAMBLERS AND GAME
ANOTHER aspect of public rights is raised . by the Ramblers’ Association’s claim that grouse shooting and deer stalking “should take second place to the health and recreation of the majority ” on uncultivated moorland. Access to mountains has been a thorny subject ever since 1888, when Mr., afterwards Lord, Bryce introduced the first Bill with this title, which reached the Statute Book in 1940. but subject to such limiting amendments that its original supporters finally opposed it. The 1940 Act does not in fact give access to mountains but enables application to be made to the Minister of Agriculture for leave of access to specified areas at specified seasons, making the applicant responsible for seeing that these limitations are observed and rendering their non-observance an act of trespass. The need for giving first place to public recreation where a conflict of interests arises would be more generally agreed if the Ramblers’ Association was less categorical in asserting that the public has a primordial right to wander at will over all uncultivated moorland and forest a point of common law by no means certain. During the past century the presetvation of game has itself come to be a form of cultivation, making much previously valueless land relatively productive both of income and food. The difficulty is that, with such a sensitive “crop” as grouse or deer, the mere presence of human beings within a wide circumference, unless moving with intimate knowledge of the ground, may eventually lead to its failure altogether, either by causing game to move elsewhere, discouraging breeding, or interfering (unwittingly) with its harvesting, in a drive or stalk. Ramblers tend not to admit this, but unless their right of access is accompanied by some acknowledgment of the rights of the species (that preceded both ramblers and landowners) to freedom from disturbance, they will gradually die out. Which would be a pity.
WOMEN ON THE FARM
THOFGH the vexed question of awarding gratuities to the Women’s Land Army does not depend upon it, the suggestion that after the war even- facility for agricultural training shall be given to the women who have served us so well during the production campaign stands or falls with the capacity of women foi effective work on the farm in peace-time.
He would be a bold man who ventured to be a-outspoken on the subject as is Frances Donald son in the current issue of Agriculture. Needlev. to sav she does not seek to belittle the part which the W.L.A. has played, or to deny that there are exceptional women who can do a manV work as well as a man. But she does say quite candidly that women, on the whole, lack Ok one absolutely essential quality for every skillcv. job on the farm—strength. And when she conies to ask, and answer, the question “Will women want to work on the land?” she boldh returns the answer “No.” There is clearh room for disagreement here, and one canni.i forget that long before the war women had proved themselves successful and efficient both in the dairy and in horticulture. Indeed the same issue of Agriculture contains a very interesting interview with a successful Cornish woman horticulturist who describes the opportunities of happiness and success fur women in horticulture.
“TRADITUM EST”
HE’D steal the cross off a donkey’s back ‘” The denunciation recalls the quaint fancy that the donkey acquired his witners stripes (which, with the black line down the back, form a cross) on the first Palm Sunday Will old superstitions of this kind retain then traditional currency in the countryside in an age of radio and better education? Enlightenment is to be welcomed but some of the fabE-, merit record before they are lost. How “local” is the notion (sometimes credited to the Cotswolds) that the death watch beetle was once a beautiful butterfly but suffered metamorphosis for mocking the Saviour by fluttering in his face on Good Friday? Still, it is said, the beetle seeks bv haunting churches to recover its lost grace. In the same class is the belief that the plaintive lapwings are possessed by the souls of those Jews who gloated over the Crucifixion. Storks .and swallows, however, have been claimed as birds of good omen because they were sorrowful watchers. The red breast of the robin (which to this day enjoys a peculiar immunitv from human interference) and the crossed mandibles of the crossbill were both held of old to have been acquired while their owners were trying to remove the nails from the Cross Mistletoe has been parasitic ever since it> damnation for having, when a healthy tree, provided the wood for the Cross: but. according to another superstition, the trembling of the aspen’s leaves i, caused by the perpetual homir that it performed that guilty service. Even now the Breton peasants refuse to eat blackberries—because they believe that tincrown of thorns was plaited from brambles.
A DIGEST OF DORSET
AS part of that process of self determination L by every communit\ of its planned future, noticed here last week regarding Guildford, Mr. Geoffrey Clark has sketched Dorset’s place in the national picture, for that county > Planning and Education Committee. His ten pages similarly state the fact that planning i* not a game for experts only, but for every inhabitant, including the schools. Dorset’s case to be regarded as neither an urban nor recreational, but a primarily agricultural society i^ applicable to many other counties, though to none perhaps so distinctively. The importance to the nation as a whole of the agricultural countryside’s way of life lies in the con-inuitv and equilibrium with which it redresses the less stable urban mentality, dyspeptic with nqvelties. But for Dorset to resolve to remain a predominantly agricultural society would not exclude urban or recreational influences, alreadv firmly established, nor the need for planned development. Hut that development would be directed to further its chosen destiny, not, as development usually means, industrialism and suburbanitv. It would aim at making Dorset 100 percent, efficient as an agricultural society, with suitable industries strengtheniiii: local economy, and the inspiring landscape as the background. In fact the programme for an agricultural county is just as urgent ami constructive as that for a con-urbation. but diametrically opposite—as it should be.
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THE PIEBALD FOAL: PEMBROKE CASTLE, SOUTH WALES
A COUNTRYMAN’S NOTES
J. A. Brimble
AREMARK in a recent Note ofa^salmon sinking to the bottom after being shot by a shot-gun has brought a letter from a correspondent who states that freshly-killed fish do not sink, but float. As the writer is an angler of considerable experience I cannot think how it is he has spent so much uf his life on bank and boat without discovering that both salmon and trout when dead usually travel to the bottom very quickly and in a most disconcerting manner, though I am not disputing that after some days, when putrefaction sets in, thev come to the surface again. I suppose there is nothing to equal the celerity and dexterity with which the beautiful 2-lb, trout, when being washed in the river to display his lovely figure and colouring, will slip through the hands and, with nicely-timed glides, swerves and swoops, will evade the grasping lingers and go to the bottom, from which one may, or may not, be able to raise him with the landing-net.
* *
*
IHAVE obtained many demonstrations of this lamentable fact during my fishing life, and I suppose what has really fixed the matter in my mind indelibly is a terrible tragedy which occurred on Lough Melvin some years ago. We were rowing back to the Garrison end after a long and quite exceptional day spent drifting down the Leitrim shore when the wind, water and weather had been just right from the cast of the first fly, so that along the burden boards of the boat lay some thirty trout of that degree of excellence which only those from Lough Melvin attain. Two-thirds of the catch were die black, brown and silver sonaghan of the deep w ater, all about the one pound mark “vvid not an ounce between them,” and the other third the rather flamboyant crimson and gold gillaroo of the shallows, one or two of which would have turned the scale at 214 lb. It was a basket of trout such as occurs but rarely in the lifetime of any fisherman and, judging from
Major C. 8. J Alt VIM
results of recent years, I am beginning to wonder if such catches will ever happen again.
Some great brain—either that of the other rod or my own—evolved the idea that the fish would look brighter and fresher if washed, and so the whole catch was placed in the boat’s big landing-net and put over the side into the water. There came a heartrending scream, “The net’s broken—full speed astern; back water; hold her up!” But the boat was moving rapidly, and by the time she had been brought round and back to the site of the disaster, all that could be seen of that wonderful basket of trout was some thirty streaks of silver spiralling gracefully five fathoms deep in the peaty water, with another five fathoms to go.
It was one of those fishing tragedies about which one may say without exaggeration that “life was never the same again.”
*
SINCE writing the above I have crossexamined several brother anglers on the question as to whether dead salmon and trout sink or float if returned to the water, and none of them would seem to be very certain on the point. One quoted a case of a very poisonous effluent being allowed to flow into his stream from a factory and recounted how he had seen scores of his trout, which had only just died, floating down with the current, and not one of them so far as he could see sank to the bottom. He also told another story of a fine Itchen trout, which fell into the water after being knocked on the head, and which floated obligingly until retrieved with the landing-net.
I do not propose to recant everything that I have written, as the loss of that Melvin bag
lives vividly in my memory when other episodes concerning fish are blurred and unreliable. I think possibly the explanation is that the floating or sinking of dead trout depends on whether its air bladders have been squeezed and damaged so as to force the air out of them, or not. In nine cases out of ten, when the hook has been driven well home as it is almost invariably with the very lively and forthcoming Lough Melvin trout, one takes a firm grip of the body to detach the hook, and in these cases the fish will sink. On those other occasions— and how often they occur—when one finds the fly has come away immediately the trout is lifted up in the landing-net the bladders contain their full quota of air, and these fish will float if returned to the water; and the same of course applies to trout which have been poisoned.
• *
*
SINCE the early days of the inauguration of poultry funds in the fox-hunting world Hunt secretaries have been in the habit of complaining that the fox never by any chance takes an old or middle-aged hen, as the birds for which a claim is made are invariably purebred laying pullets—in other words the highestpriced stock to be found on the poultry farm. The imputation is obvious, but I think in many cases is unjust, as no one ever accuses the fox of lack of judgment, and he or she is quite clever enough to show discrimination, and pick out the most edible of the birds. On two separate occasions I have had a flock of a dozen or so five-month-old birds attacked by a fox at night, and in one raid the full complement of seven pullets were all killed and six cockerels left untouched, while in the second five pullets were slain and six cockerels spared. I may mention that in those days a cockerel, particularly a Leghorn, had a very low market value, though I am not certain if even a fox can be credited with a knowledge of ruling prices. The point is that a pullet is a far more tender and flavourous bird than a cockerel of the same age, but as the pullet is ordained for higher things
than the dinner-table it is seldom one has the
opportunity of reminding oneself of the fact.
* *
*
TT is not my intention to re-open the age-old X dispute as to whether the Hunt poultry fund is abused or not, but to point out that, if a bereaved poultryman wishes to be dishonest and exploit his disaster, he can make more money by proving that the raid was carried out, not by a fox, but by two dogs belonging to different owners. According to a judgment given in a case recently in a Midland court if the plaintiff succeeds in proving that both dogs took part in the killing each defendant dogowner is liable, not for half the damage as one would expect, but for all of it— in other words the poultryman is compensated for double the number of birds that he has lost!
This may be the law, but it does not make sense, and the only way in which a dog-owner can get square is by allowing his dog to kill all the poultryman’s tame rabbits, if by any chance he should keep them. This, as has been proved by another recent decision in an Appeal
Court, is quite in order as the Dogs Act of 1906 makes the dog-owner liable for the killing or injuring of domestic animals, a term which embraces poultry, but tame rabbits are not included under the definition “cattle.” So here the dog is held to be following his common instinct, and all is well for the dog and his
WHILE on the topic of the law being a “hass” I might mention the impending fate of our village, or to be more exact town, common. This, like so many village greens, is in the heart of the town and bounded on three sides by houses, while on the fourth there is an arm of the river. For generations it has been regarded as one of the town’s open spaces: animals graze on it, children play on it, visiting circuses pitch their tents on it, and until recently the Home Guard paraded on it. The lord of the manor cannot fence it, or prevent the public from using it in any way, but it transpires, according to the laws governing common land, that he can extract gravel from it, and this he proposes to do. In other words, though the law prevents him from interfering with any of the
rights and free access to the common which the public possess, he is legally entitled to obliterate it for all time as, owing to the whole area being little more than six feet above the river level, there will be a deep lake instead of a village green when the gravel extraction is completed. I have an idea that possibly our very inefficient laws regarding common land may require that the area be levelled and the turf replaced, after minerals have been extracted, but, as this is not the “Sudd” region of the Upper Nile, it is unlikely that sods of turf will flourish on the surface of a pond six feet deep.
As, however, our town is now surrounded on three sides by a chain of similar lagoons, owing to universal and indiscriminate gravel extraction, this will not matter so much as it might in other areas. It only remains now for some landowner to discover that he may dig gravel from the main street for our town to call itself the Hampshire Venice, for the taxiowners to sell their cars and buy gondolas, and for the inhabitants to learn to play the mandolin and guitar. What a pity it is that our Ministry of Town and Country Planning has only the powers to plan.
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THERE are not fewer than 225 species of turtles and they are found in all countries and in their surrounding seas, except in those areas where W inters are severe. They vary greatly in size.
Some of the smaller turtles when full-grown will scarcely cover your hand, whereas the marine leatherback turtle mav have a shell eight feet long and weigh three quarters of a ton. Even the leatherback, however, must take second place to a prehistoric turtle which, according to fossil remains, reached a length of 12 ft. and probably weighed over a ton.
The names turtle, terrapin and tortoise are used for different members of the order chelonia, but herpetologists are not agreed on how these names should be applied. Throughout this article I have therefore used the one word turtle to describe whatever chelonian I am writing about.
Turtles are hatched from eggs, but they have several differences from those of birds. Most of them are elliptical and the shells are like parchment and can be dented permanently like old rubber balls. But the common snapping turtle lays an egg which is remarkably like a
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table-tennis ball, even to its ability to bounce when dropped on a hard surface!
The mortality rate among turtles, especially when young, is very high, but a compensating factor is the large number of eggs laid by a female. This applies chiefly to the sea turtles. Numbers vary greatly with the different species, but frequently three or four clutches of 20 or more eggs may be
laid in a season The green turtle has been proved to lay seven clutches at intervals of about two weeks with an average of about a hundred to a clutch. One turtle laid 176 eggs in one clutch.
The actual laying of the eggs, although it occupies only an hour or so, is the most critical time in the female turtle’s life. The sea turtle
[graphic]
on a beach or foreshore; the desert turtle in a sandy waste; the river species on a bank; each digs out a nest, deposits the eggs, carefully smoothes away traces of her toil and then, her duty to posterity done, leaves her eggs for ever. So intent is the female on this task that even blows seldom divert her from her purpose. The heat of the sun hatches the eggs.
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Country Life, Volume 97
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(Right) YOUNG COMMON MUD TURTLE —VERY AGGRESSIVE FOR ITS SIZE
(Below) A 50-lb. ALLIGATOR SNAPPING TURTLE WHICH CAN CARRY A MAN
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Although young turtles are equipped with an egg-tooth similar to a baby bird, this does not appear to play so large a part in releasing them as does the rupturing of the shell due to the rapid absorption of the water. Great as is the mortality of the young it would be still greater were it not for their remarkable ability to hide, and their no less remarkable independence of food, which prevents the necessity of their foraging far afield. Young turtles can live for months on the food absorbed by their digestive tracts while they were still in their eggs.
Once over the hazardous stage of infancy a turtle is in the running for a century or even a double century. Specimens of the common box turtle, whose shell rarely exceeds six inches, have still been alive after more than forty years in captivity, and there is reasonable evidence that some of them reach the century.
According to Clifford H. Pope, to whose fine book Turtles of the U.S. and Canada (1939) I am indebted for some of the information in this article, the turtle positively known to have lived the longest survived at least one hundred and fifty-two years on Mauritius where it was accidentally killed in 1918. Other authorities consider there is good evidence that an Aldabra turtle lived two hundred and fifty years and possibly longer. This turtle was mentioned in a document drawn up in 1810 as then being one hundred and fifty years old and it lived well into this century. It should be pointed out that size is not necessarily a true index of age. A large turtle in captivity was observed to increase its weight from 29 to 350 pounds in seven years!
Turtles are very tenacious of life. Raymond L. Ditmars tells of finding a turtle, apparently in the best of health, whose healed shell showed signs of having once been cut nearly in two. A Blanding’s turtle, which is little larger than a man’s hand, was once found with its shell showing signs of having been crushed by a horse. The carapace was smashed down an inch or more, yet was otherwise perfectly healed, and its owner appeared quite normal.
Professor Roy L. Abbott says one of his pet snapping turtles, weighing about twenty pounds, endured the assaults of an eight-foot alligator which vigorously but vainly tried to crush it. But I do not think the largest and most powerful alligators would have much difficulty in overcoming such a small turtle, for the strong jaws of some alligators are said to crush the shells of even large turtles easily.
Turtles have been frozen solid for twentyfour hours and yet have survived. They have been put in lethal chambers and gassed for an hour and emerged none the worse. Some species have been forcibly submerged in water for two and a half hours and when released have appeared to be quite normal.
Pope says: “There is no danger of starvation for an animal ble to survive months without food even when normally active;
ind the greatly slowed-up bodily processes during hibernation ensure survival on the available supply of fat. Nor does fear of suffocation disturb the sleeper’s dreams, because the small amount of oxygen required to keep the low fires burning is readily secured even in submerged mud or under water itself. It must be remembered that cold water holds more oxygen in solution than warm. ^Estivation, a state of suspended animation somewhat similar to hibernation, tides turtles and other animals over periods of dry heat.”
A turtle’s main defence against a world which, on the whole, is very hostile is, of course, its shell. Safely ensconced in this strong-point it is safe from all but its strongest enemies. Incidentally, not all turtles have the traditional hard shell. There are several comparatively soft-shelled species. One of these found in Africa has a novel form of defence. The top of its shell is pliable and leathery. When disturbed the turtle takes refuge among shelving rocks, takes a deep breath, thus expanding the shell, and jams itself safely in its rock-bound hide-out.
Although most turtles are well protected by their shelly covering the motto of some of them appears to be “The best defence is a
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THE
SERRATED LOWER JAW AND NOTCHES OF THE FLORIDA RED-BELLIED
TURTLE
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strong attack.” For such proverbially sluggish creatures the viciousness of some species is remarkable. The snapping turtle is well-named; when aroused it will deliberately charge to the attack and should its powerful jaws clamp down on any part of its foe’s anatomy it will hang on with the tenacity of a bull-dog. This turtle’s angry lunges with its head sometimes are so energetic that, if it misses its object, its whole body is lifted from the ground.
This action is not so unusual as it may sound, for there is another turtle, the ornate box turtle, which feeds on grasshoppers and has actually been seen to stretch its neck, jump and catch one in flight!
A word must be said here about the speed of turtles. Before the war a ” National Terrapin Derby ” was held in the United States each year. Turtles were placed in the centre of a circle with a radius of 75 ft. The first turtle to cross the circumference was the winner. This form of racing was necessary because turtles could not be guaranteed to travel in the required direction. The average speed of the winner in these race meetings was about a foot per second or two-thirds of a mile an hour.
While such a speed may be representative of a large number of turtles it is by no means an indication of the speed of the fastest species. The spineless soft-shelled turtle can cover the ground so fast that some writers have averred that it can outrun a mail. While this may well be an exaggeration, it gives some idea of this turtle’s surprising agility.
In water this soft-shelled turtle is also very fast. Alvin R. Cahn says he has seen one of these turtles in a large tank pursue and catch a brook trout by sheer superior agility! Neither turtle nor trout would be able to reach maximum speed in a tank—unless it was of exceptional length and it should not, of course, be assumed that in open water the turtle could overtake a fish whose maximum speed is in the region of twenty miles an hour. The fastest turtles are almost certainly found among the marine species, which are much more adapted for swimming than any fresh-water species.
A turtle has no true teeth, but a number of species have sharp serrations and projections t>f the horny edges of the jaws and sometimes of the ridges inside the mouth. With these false teeth even a medium-sized turtle can sever a broomstick as easily as a donkey chops a carrot. The map turtle, which weighs only three or four pounds, lives on molluscs, which means that it must be capable of easily crushing their tough shells.
An 18-in.-long snapping turtle in the London Zoo once attacked its keeper and,
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grabbing the sole of his boot, tore it clean away from the upper. The alligator snapping turtle, which may weigh a hundred pounds, can bite lumps out of one-inch boards, or walk about without any appreciable effort with a man weighing considerably more than itself on its back.
In controlled experiments turtles have exhibited surprising intelligence. In a famous series of expeiintents D. B. Casteel used tame turtles. They were faced with two boxes. If they entered one they received a mild electric shock and if the other they were rewarded with food. The boxes were variously decorated and Casteel ensured, by frequently shifting the boxes, that it was only by learning and remembering what the markings on the boxes meant that the turtles made their choices.
By these experiments it was found that the turtles learned to discriminate between black vertical lines eight and two mm. wide. One exceptional turtle learned to distinguish between a box painted with black lines three mm. wide and another with lines only two mm. wide. When the tests were repeated after an interval of six weeks one turtle remembered perfectly and another, after an interval of twelve weeks, showed only a little falling off in accuracy.
The common box turtle also appears to
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have a good memory. John T. Nichols says that he frequentlv dug for worms or shook caterpillars from a tree growing in his turtles’ enclosure. He found that they soon learned to associate either action with food and approached for the anticipated feast. Another man said his wood turtle learnt to beg for food by waving a leg or walking round in a circle.
Turtles have given rise to one of the most unusual methods of angling practised anywhere in the world: fishing by means of captive remoras or sucking-fish. In particular the natives living on the shores of the Torres Strait, between Australia and New Guinea fish for turtles in this way.
The remora has one of its dorsal fins modified to form a lamellated disc on the top of its head. With this sucker it attaches itself to sharks and other fish and travels with them, picking up scraps of food left over by its host. The natives capture a remora and make a hole at the base of the tail-fin. A long cord i-. then inserted through the hole and tied.
The natives then put to sea and when a turtle is sighted the remora, with cord attached, is thrown overboard. What follows has been well described by John Jardine, who spent several years among the natives of this area. He says:
The sucking-fish was put into the water. At first it swam lazily about, apparently recovering the strength which it had lost by removal from its native element; but presently it swam slowly in the direction of the turtle, till out of sight: in a very short time the line was rapidly carried out. there was ;i jerk, and the turtle was fast. The line was handled gently for two or three minutes, the steersman causing the canoe to follow the course of the turtle with great dexterity. It was soon exhausted ami hauled up to the canoe. It was a small turtle weighing a little under 401b., but the sucking-fish adhered so tenaciously to it, as to raise it from the ground, when held up by the tail, and this some mm after being taken out of the water. … I have seen turtles weighing more than 1001b.. which Imn’ been taken in the manner described.
Dr. E. W. Gudger, who wrote at length on this use of the remora in The American Xaluralisl for September-October, and November-Decent ber, 1919, considers from experiments which have been made that a fairlv large remora, say 30 ins. long, is capable of exerting an adhesive force of between fifty and a hundred pounds. As two hundred and fiftv pound fish have been caught on lines with breaking strains under 501b. it can readily be understood how two hundred and three hundred pound turtles can be captured when once a remora has got a firm grip.
(The photograplis illustrating tins artiili tin by Mark Aloonev, Jr., Zoological Society v) Philadelphia.)
THE FUTURE OF TOPIARY
By GEOFFREY CLAYTON
OUR trees rise in cones, globes and pyramids. We see the marks of the scissors -on every plant and bush.” Thus the Spectator, ever a lively critic of contemporary activities, in the early years of the eighteenth century. And, indeed, there was considerable reason for it; from a graceful fashion topiary had, in the reign of William and Mary, assumed the pitch of a grotesque craze. The effect in some quarters was pantomimic—regular collections of vegetable sculpture, reducing the whole art to an absurdity. “Adam and Eve in Yew,” scoffed the Guardian of the same period, quoting from a sale catalogue, “St. George in Box; a green dragon and a pair of giants.”
Nearly a century earlier Bacon himself had criticised the craze that was even then sweeping Kngland. “I for my part do not like images cut out in juniper or other garden stuff: thev be for children,” he wrote in his famous essay on gardens.
What of the future? The years immediately proceeding the war saw a marked return to popularity of topiary in this country. There was a growing appreciation of the charm, in more tempered form, of the trimming of shrubs and hedges, as the increasing exhibits at I^ondon shows gave evidence. There is nothing to suggest that this pre-war interest will not be revived when hostilities cease. Even in 1939 the demand for shrubs greatly exceeded the home supply and many thousands of specimens were imported from the Continent. Here there must he a difficulty for some time, as the majority came from Holland.
It is not only the question of charm, but also that of its harmonisation with present-day surroundings which is likely to ensure the continued popularity of topiary. Its formal lines and geometrical designs are in keeping with the severe note running through much of modern architecture. For small suburban “front” gardens, so many of them paved over, limited examples of topiary are ideal. Such artificial
constructions as roof-gardens lend themselves admirably to the art. Again, an advantage appealing to many in these days of labour shortage and limited leisure is that, when once installed, the specimens call for minimum effort in upkeep. Twice-a-year trimming is all that is necessary and the trees are extremely hardy and immune from disease.
Some argue that topiary treatment is against Nature; if this is so, then surely a clipped lawn, a formal bed—indeed, any restriction of natural growth must lie open to the same accusation.
Many of the complaints are doubtless levelled against those who invariably exaggerate anything they tackle and overload their gardens out of all proportion to the size of them. At Nottingham there is a remarkable example of topiary in the shape of a life-sized horse, clipped from hawthorn bushes; but it is unlikely that the average garden of to-day would be able to support a specimen of this size. It must be remembered that topiary work stands out very prominently; thus considerable care is needed in the placing of specimens, and it is not a bad idea to make the first experiments with trees in tubs. Again, nothing looks worse than badly clipped or ill-shaped examples; on the other hand, yew archways, well-chosen shrubs in formal gardens and about pools can be highly attractive.
The accepted materials for topiary work are box, holly, privet, hornbeam and, of course, the favourite yew, which has been described as the most beautiful natural evergreen of the western world. Irrespective of their age, box and yew transplant excellently and, being very hardy, stand up to the extremes of British weather.
The diffident amateur usually prefers to buy his specimens ready-clipped, and in normal times he will find a wide choice of designs awaiting him—not only birds and such animals as squirrels, foxes and hounds, but he may indulge his fancy in spirals, balls, cones, pyramids and many other shapes.
Some of the old specimens were most elaborate, one example showing, on a heavv square “stage” of box, a man, completely hatted and costumed, prodding, with a long pole, a dancing bear, while behind him gambolled a dog. To-day, simple designs are more in keeping with modern ideas. Good specimens, of course, are not inexpensive, for they take many years to grow; a shaped box of some 3 feet in height is probably 20 years old.
Those of more adventurous temperament find the growing of their own specimens rather fascinating and not so difficult as some might suppose.
The small trees suitable for topiary are obtainable from those specialists who also stock the wire frames, superseding the older wooden “formers,” upon which the growing foliage is trained. Let your man know the design you have in mind and he will choose the suitable tree; the ultimate pattern is usually decided in the first place by the natural shape of the growing shrub.
The method is simple enough. The frame is placed in position when the bush has made good growth and the new shoots are accurately trained along the wires, which the compact foliage will quickly conceal. The possessor of a hedge of yew or box can add to its beauty by placing a frame upon the top. A few years may elapse before this is completely covered, but the final result will be. exceedingly effective.
While holly is best clipped in June, midAugust to half way through September is the time for shrubs. Care must be taken with box, which is prone to damage by frost; and frost on designs with large horizontal surfaces may cause temporary setbacks. So it is well that specimens grown in tubs should be frequently turned to encourage density of growth.
Watching the gradual shaping of specimens is fascinating; and there is every prospect that the future will see no lessening of interest in this charming art.
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ONE OF A SET OF MARGATE
VIGNETTES (Length 1 inch)
SINCE Major A. G. Wade unearthed from ‘a family scrap-book some examples of pictorial note-paper, published in Correspondence, August 18, 1944, many readers have kindly sent us further specimens. Some of these have been illustrated in Correspondence from time to time, but our temporary collection has by now assumed such a range that it is time to reproduce a representative selection and to draw some general conclusions on the origin, duration, and purpose of the vogue.
It was evidently a fashionable innovation following upon the institution of the Penny Post in 1840. Significantly the earliest example submitted to us is dated 1841, and is hotly topical in subject, namely the burning of the Great Store House at the Tower of London on October 31 of that year. It is described as engraved and published by Crosland and Co., Fenchurch Street. Other early examples are Lincoln and Grasmere (published by Harwood, London), respectively 1841 and 1845.
It is clear that the idea was the forerunner of the picture post-card. This accounts for the predominance among the subjects of watering places, holiday resorts, and beautyspots. In one case the writer of a letter on August 31, 1860, leaves us in no doubt of the fact by marking the picture, in an original way, to indicate the exact place of her sojourn: The print at the top of my letter is a representation of Wellington Crescent where we lodged at Ramsgate. I have marked the house where we lodged with a x.
The latest example received is a technically inferior representation, in colour, of the Mansion House, London, with the beginning of a letter in French dated Mercredi 6 Septembre 1874.
By then non-pictorial post-cards were beginning to come into use, initiated by the Austrian Government in 1869. For many years official post-cards only were permitted, private cards at the %d. rate not being admitted in Britain till 1894. This was the origin of picture post-cards, which, during the next decade, enjoyed an immense vogue. In 1899 the Daily News stated that “every method has been placed in the service of the picture post-card industry and much has been produced which in its artistic execution may lay claim to lasting value.” In 1900 an exhibition of picture postcards was held in Paris containing 150,000 examples.
An interval would seem, therefore, to have elapsed between the decline in the note-paper vogue and its final eclipse by the picture postcard in the ‘nineties. This may be accounted for by its having become demode”, the exquisite steel engravings of the ‘fifties seeming oldfashioned, and by the practice having been vulgarised by commercial firms adopting it to illustrate their shop or factory on bill-heads.
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ROYAL CRESCENT, RATH
(F. Curtis, Bath)
Most of the examples that one remembers of this, now also nearly extinct, form of advertising give the impression of having been crudelv executed in the ‘seventies or ‘eighties—or in the debased styles of those decades.
Thus we have the rough limits of the notepaper vogue as 1840-70.
The headings of this period are, almost without exception, beautifully executed steel engravings. In a majority of cases they were re-used from illustrated topographical books, such as J. P. N’eale’s Views of Seals (first six volumes 1816-23, second series 1824-29), from which the plate of Sezincote, Gloucestershire, was taken. The precedent was evidently followed in the making of special vignettes of country houses, since one of Felbrigg Hall. Norfolk, is dated July 4, 1856 (illustrated October 6, 1944), and a view in sepia of Redhouse, Ardee, Co. Louth, is dated 1854. This seems to be an amateur effort, since Mr. H. F. McClintock who sends it says that the drawing was by Lady Clermont (nee Ladv Louisa Butler), sister-in-law of Chichester Fortescue, Lord Carlingford, the then owner of Redhouse. The most enterprising publishers of note-paper were evidently Rock and Co. who numbered their plates. That of Felbrigg is No. 3166; Abbev Crescent, Torquay (1865), No. 5328. Another prolific publisher was J. Harwood, whose plates are dated from 1841. Ix>cal publishers joined in. The view of Royal Crescent, Bath, was published by F. Curtis, 4, Quiet Street, Bath; Beck of Leamington, Syckelmoore of Maidstone, and Percy of Margate, and no doubt many others, published paper with local views. The name of the artist is not generally given except when the plate was derived from a book. These comprise the finest examples technically and are often by leading men such as Pickering (Newby Bridge) or Thomas Allom (Watergate. Chester.)
An entirely’ different line was exploited by the enterprising Messrs. Rock with a series of delightful vignettes appealing to tenderer sentiments than the topographical. There is a whole sequence for young ladies, with beautifully drawn groups representing the declension of love—”I love,” “They love” (a mother with children), “I have loved” (a grandmother consoling a damsel); and another appealing to fond parents, such as “Polkanette,” “The dear children are home for the holidays.” and the return of the Prodigal Son. This latter was engraved bv Newman and Barclay of Watling Street, London, and published by G. Batters of Nottingham. Allied to these are two sheets with embossed frame containing respectively a stanza by Milton entitled DevoUdness, and the musical score of the Lancers Quadrilles (Rock and Co.). But with them we are passing beyond
the scope of this note.
C. H.
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REDHOUSE, ARDEE, Co. LOUTH (1854)
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LINCOLN. (J. and F. Harwood. 1841) THE TOWER OF LONDON. (Cropland and Co. 1841)
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NEWBY BRIDGE, BY G. PICKERING WATERGATE STREET, CHESTER, BY T. ALLOM
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THE TURTLE IN A HOSTILE WORLD
By
FRANK W. LANE
(Left) NORTHERN DIAMOND-BACK
TERRAPIN
(Below) YOUNG TROOST’S TURTLE
THERE are not fewer than 225 species of turtles and they are found in all countries and in their surrounding seas, except in those areas where W inters are severe. They vary greatly in size.
Some of the smaller turtles when full-grown will scarcely cover your hand, whereas the marine leatherback turtle mav have a shell eight feet long and weigh three quarters of a
ton. Even the leatherback, however, must take second place to a prehistoric turtle which, according to fossil remains, reached a length of 12 ft. and probably weighed over a ton.
The names turtle, terrapin and tortoise are used for different members of the order chelonia, but herpetologists are not agreed on how these names should be applied. Throughout this article I have therefore used the one word turtle to describe whatever chelonian I am writing about.
Turtles are hatched from eggs, but they have several differences from those of birds. Most of them are elliptical and the shells are like parchment and can be dented permanently like old rubber balls. But the common snapping turtle lays an egg which is remarkably like a
table-tennis ball, even to its ability to bounce when dropped on a hard surface !
The mortality rate among turtles, especially when young, is very high, but a
compensating factor is the large number of eggs laid by a
female. This applies chiefly to the sea turtles. Numbers vary greatly with the different species, but frequently three or four clutches of 20 or more eggs may be laid in a season The green turtle has been proved to lay seven clutches at intervals of about two weeks with an average of about a
hundred to a clutch. One turtle laid 176 eggs in one clutch. The actual laying of the eggs, although it occupies only an hour or so, is the most critical time in the female turtle’s life. The sea turtle
on a beach or foreshore; the desert turtle in a
sandy waste ; the river species on a bank ; each digs out a nest, deposits the eggs, carefully smoothes away traces of her toil and then, her duty to posterity done, leaves her eggs for ever. So intent is the female on this task that even blows seldom divert her from her purpose. The heat of the sun hatches the eggs.
COUNTRY LIFE — MARCH 30, 1945 547
(Right) YOUNG COMMON MUD TURTLE
—VERY AGGRESSIVE FOR ITS SIZE
(Below) A 50-lb. ALLIGATOR SNAPPING
TURTLE WHICH CAN CARRY A MAN
Although young turtles are equipped with an egg-tooth similar to a baby bird, this does not appear to play so large a part in releasing them as does the rupturing of the shell due to the rapid absorption of the water. Great as is the mortality of the young it would be still greater were it not for their remarkable ability to hide, and their no less remarkable independence of food, which prevents the necessity of their foraging far afield. Young turtles can live for months on the food absorbed by their digestive tracts while they were still in their eggs.
Once over the hazardous stage of infancy a turtle is in the running for a century or even a double century. Specimens of the common box turtle, whose shell rarely exceeds six inches, have still been alive after more than forty years in captivity, and there is reasonable evidence that some of them reach the century.
According to Clifford H. Pope, to whose fine book Turtles of the U.S. and Canada (1939) I am indebted for some of the information in this article, the turtle positively known to have lived the longest survived at least one hundred and fifty-two years on Mauritius where it was accident ally killed in 1918. Other authorities consider there is good evidence that an Aldabra turtle lived two hundred and fifty years and possibly longer. This turtle was mentioned in a docu ment drawn up in 1810 as then being one hundred and fifty years old and it lived well into this century. It should be pointed out that size is not necessarily a true index of age. A
large turtle in captivity was observed to increase its weight from 29 to 350 pounds in seven years !
Turtles are very tenacious of life. Raymond L. Ditmars tells of finding a turtle, apparently in the best of health, whose healed shell showed signs of having once been cut nearly in two. A Blanding’s turtle, which is little larger than a man’s hand, was once found with its shell showing signs of having been crushed by a
horse. The carapace was smashed down an inch or more, yet was other wise perfectly healed, and its owner appeared quite normal.
Professor Roy L. Abbott says one of his pet snapping turtles, weighing about twenty pounds, endured the assaults of an eight-foot alligator which vigorously but vainly tried to crush it. But I do not think the largest and most powerful alligators would have much difficulty in over coming such a small turtle, for the strong jaws of some alligators are said to crush the shells of even large turtles easily.
Turtles have been frozen solid for twenty- four hours and yet have survived. They have been put in lethal chambers and gassed for an hour and emerged none the worse. Some species have been forcibly submerged in water for two and a half hours and when released have appeared to be quite normal.
Pope says : “There is no danger of starvation for an animal ble to survive months without food even when normally active; ind the greatly slowed-up bodily processes during hibernation ensure survival on the available supply of fat. Nor does fear of suffocation disturb the sleeper’s dreams, because the small amount of oxygen required to keep the low fires burning is readily secured even in submerged mud or under water itself. It must be remembered that cold water holds more oxygen in solution than warm. ^Estivation, a state of suspended animation somewhat similar to hibernation, tides turtles and other animals over periods of dry heat.”
A turtle’s main defence against a world which, on the whole, is very hostile is, of course, its shell. Safely ensconced in this strong-point it is safe from all but its strongest enemies. Incidentally, not all turtles have the traditional hard shell. There are several comparatively soft-shelled species. One of these found in Africa has a novel form of defence. The top of its shell is pliable and leathery. When disturbed the turtle takes refuge among shelving rocks, takes a deep breath, thus expanding the shell, and jams itself safely in its rock-bound hide-out.
Although most turtles are well protected by their shelly covering the motto of some of them appears to be “The best defence is a
THE SERRATED LOWER JAW AND NOTCHES OF THE FLORIDA RED-BELLIED
TURTLE
COUNTRY LIFE— MARCH 30. 1945 548
strong attack.” For such proverbially sluggish creatures the viciousness of some species is remarkable. The snapping turtle is well-named ;
when aroused it will deliberately charge to the attack and should its powerful jaws clamp down on any part of its foe’s anatomy it will hang on with the tenacity of a bull-dog. This turtle’s angry lunges with its head sometimes are so energetic that, if it misses its object, its whole body is lifted from the ground.
This action is not so unusual as it may sound, for there is another turtle, the ornate box turtle, which feeds on grasshoppers and has actually been seen to stretch its neck, jump and catch one in flight !
A word must be said here about the speed of turtles. Before the war a ” National Terrapin Derby ” was held in the United States each year. Turtles were placed in the centre of a circle with a radius of 75 ft. The first turtle to cross the circumference was the winner. This form of racing was necessary because turtles could not be guaranteed to travel in the required direction. The average speed of the winner in these race meetings was about a foot per second or two-thirds of a mile an hour.
While such a speed may be representative of a large number of turtles it is by no means an indication of the speed of the fastest species. The spineless soft-shelled turtle can cover the ground so fast that some writers have averred that it can outrun a mail. While this may well be an exaggeration, it gives some idea of this turtle’s surprising agility.
In water this soft-shelled turtle is also very fast. Alvin R. Cahn says he has seen one of these turtles in a large tank pursue and catch a brook trout by sheer superior agility !
Neither turtle nor trout would be able to reach maximum speed in a tank—unless it was of ex ceptional length and it should not, of course, be assumed that in open water the turtle could overtake a fish whose maximum speed is in the region of twenty miles an hour. The fastest turtles are almost certainly found among the marine species, which are much more adapted for swimming than any fresh-water species.
A turtle has no true teeth, but a number of species have sharp serrations and projections t>f the horny edges of the jaws and sometimes of the ridges inside the mouth. With these false teeth even a medium-sized turtle can sever a
broomstick as easily as a donkey chops a carrot. The map turtle, which weighs only three or four pounds, lives on molluscs, which means that it must be capable of easily crushing their tough shells.
An 18-in.-long snapping turtle in the London Zoo once attacked its keeper and,
FEMALE ATLANTIC LOGGERHEAD TURTLE
grabbing the sole of his boot, tore it clean away from the upper. The alligator snapping turtle, which may weigh a hundred pounds, can bite lumps out of one-inch boards, or walk about without any appreciable effort with a man weighing considerably more than itself on its back.
In controlled experiments turtles have exhibited surprising intelligence. In a famous series of expei intents D. B. Casteel used tame turtles. They were faced with two boxes. If they entered one they received a
mild electric shock and if the other they were rewarded with food. The boxes were variously decorated and Casteel ensured, by frequently shifting the boxes, that it was only by learning and remembering what the markings on the boxes meant that the turtles made their choices.
By these experiments it was found that the turtles learned to discriminate between black vertical lines eight and two mm. wide. One exceptional turtle learned to distinguish between a box painted with black lines three mm. wide and another with lines only two mm. wide. When the tests were repeated after an interval of six weeks one turtle remembered perfectly and another, after an interval of twelve weeks, showed only a little falling off in accuracy.
The common box turtle also appears to
MALE FLORIDA TURTLE, WHOSE CLAWS ARE SOME THREE TIMES
THE LENGTH OF THE FEMALE’S
have a good memory. John T. Nichols says that he frequentlv dug for worms or shook cater pillars from a tree growing in his turtles’ en closure. He found that they soon learned to associate either action with food and approached for the anticipated feast. Another man said his wood turtle learnt to beg for food by waving a leg or walking round in a circle.
Turtles have given rise to one of the most unusual methods of angling practised anywhere in the world : fishing by means of captive remoras or sucking-fish. In particular the natives living on the shores of the Torres Strait, between Australia and New Guinea fish for turtles in this way.
The remora has one of its dorsal fins modified to form a lamellated disc on the top of its head. With this sucker it attaches itself to sharks and other fish and travels with them, picking up scraps of food left over by its host. The natives capture a remora and make a
hole at the base of the tail-fin. A long cord i-. then inserted through the hole and tied.
The natives then put to sea and when a
turtle is sighted the remora, with cord attached, is thrown overboard. What follows has been well described by John Jardine, who spent several years among the natives of this area. He says :
The sucking-fish was put into the water. At first it swam lazily about, apparently recovering the strength which it had lost by removal from its native element; but presently it swam slowly in the direc tion of the turtle, till out of sight : in a very short time the line was rapidly carried out. there was ;i jerk, and the turtle was fast. The line was handled gently for two or three minutes, the steersman causing the canoe to follow the course of the turtle with great dexterity. It was soon exhausted ami hauled up to the canoe. It was a small turtle weighing a little under 401b., but the sucking-fish adhered so tenaciously to it, as to raise it from the ground, when held up by the tail, and this some mm after being taken out of the water. … I have seen turtles weighing more than 1001b.. which Imn’ been taken in the manner described.
Dr. E. W. Gudger, who wrote at length on this use of the remora in The American Xaluralisl for September-October, and November- Decent ber, 1919, considers from experiments which have been made that a fairlv large remora, say 30 ins. long, is capable of exerting an adhesive force of between fifty and a hundred pounds. As two hundred and fiftv pound fish have been caught on lines with breaking strains under 501b. it can readily be understood how two hundred and three hundred pound turtles can be captured when once a remora has got a firm grip.
(The photograplis illustrating tins artiili tin by Mark Aloonev, Jr., Zoological Society v) Philadelphia.)
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