University of Virginia Library

23. Carolina Beasts
BY THOMAS ASH (1680)[100]

Fireflies.[101]—There are in Carolina great numbers of fireflies, who carry their lanterns in their tails, in dark nights flying through the air, shining like streaks of fire, and lighting it with their golden spangles. I have seen a larger sort at Jamaica. These have two lights upon their eyes and a third in their tails; on dark nights they shine like candles, so that I have often, at a distance, mistaken their sparkle for the lights of some distant plantation. Amongst large orange trees in the night I have seen many of those flies whose lights have appeared like hanging candles or hanging torches which amidst the leaves yielded a sight truly curious. With three of these fireflies secured in a glass bottle in a very dark night I have read very small print.

Turtles.[102]—The tortoises, more commonly called by our Indians the turtles, are of three sorts: the hawksbill, whose shell is that which we call the tortoise shell; the green turtle, whose flesh is good to eat; the third kind is called the loggerhead turtle, and neither its shell nor its flesh is of worth. The kind of creatures who live both on the land and on the sea in the day usually keep in the sea, swimming on the surface. In fair weather they delight to expose themselves to the sun, oftentimes falling asleep, lying there without any motion on the water, until they are disturbed by the approach of some ship. Then, as they are very quick of hearing, they awaken quickly and dive away. In the night they often come on shore to feed, and lay their eggs in the sand, which once

covered they leave for the sun to hatch. The little turtles dig their passage out of the sand, immediately making their way towards the water.

Sea Cow.[103]—There is, farther to the southward of Carolina, a fish called the sea cow, of extraordinary size, sometimes of a thousand pounds. It feeds on the banks on the grassy herbage. She has a head like a cow and is of a green color. Her flesh is said to be sweeter than the tenderest veal. Its skin makes excellent whips for horses, which are very serviceable and lasting.

Alligator or Crocodile.—There are in the mouths of their rivers, or in the lakes near the sea, creatures which are little known in the West Indies and are called alligators or crocodiles. Their backs are scaly and impenetrable, so that a musket ball cannot pierce them.[104] It lives both on land and on water, and is such a greedy creature that it devours everything it sees. Man, however, it dares to take on land only by surprise or when asleep. In the water the crocodile is more dangerous. It sometimes grows to great length, from sixteen to twenty feet, and has a long mouth set with sharp teeth. Its body, when full grown, is as large as that of a horse, growing smaller towards the tail. Nature has given land creatures an instinct to avoid the crocodile, warning them by its strong musky smell, which can be perceived at Considerable distance, so that poor cattle, smelling it in time, can get out of harm's way.