TORTOISE-SHELL. The semi-transparent and beautifully mottled material of the scales covering the carapace of the hawksbill (q.v.), a marine turtle found in all tropical seas. In this species the thirteen shield-plates do not join at the edges, but overlap posteriorly; the larger cen tral ones are broadly triangular in outline, keeled, and six or seven inches broad, and those of a large turtle may weigh eight pounds. They are rarely thick enough to serve the ornamental purposes to which tortoise-shell is usually ap plied, but when heated in oil or boiled in water may be welded together under pressure, or molded into a form which will be retained when cooled. "In genuine articles of Oriental manu facture these welds can generally be detected, or their compound nature is indicated by the beauti ful pattern, which is too regular in the imita tions now common." Even the shavings and fragments are welded into serviceable pieces. The turtles are taken usually when they come ashore to lay their eggs; and the plates are (or were) sometimes removed by roasting the living animal until they were loosened and could torn off ; this was done under the belief that when the mutilated creature was returned to the sea the plates would regrow, but there is no evidence that this oeeurs, and the turtle probably dies. This cruel process, moreover, injures the
tortoise-shell. The best and proper way is to kill the turtle and then detach the plates by im mersion in boiling water. in its nature and chemical composition the material closely re sembles horn (q.v.). The use of tortoise-shell has long been known. Julius Caesar found areat quantities of it in the storehouses of The Romans veneered furniture with it. In modern times, in addition to eomb-making, tor toise-shell is made into eard-cases, trays, hand kerchief-boxes, and various other articles of ornament and the toilet. It is also used still to inlay expensive furniture, the Chinese and Jap anese producing the most complicated and beau tiful examples of this sort of art.