382 CHELONIA 



CHAP. IX 



nets or harpoons. In some parts of the world the natives follow 

 them in a boat, and when they espy a turtle crawling along the 

 bottom, a man, attached to a rope, dives in, clasps it, and is 

 brought up by his companions together with his prey. Tm'tles 

 are fond of basking asleep, floating on the surface, and they are 

 then liarpooned from a stealthily approaching boat. The most 

 original mode of catching them is that used by the natives of 

 Torres Straits, Madagascar, and Cuba. The turtle-fishers go out 

 in the boat to a spot frequented by grazing turtles ; a long 

 string is tied to the tail of a fish, Ucheneis, a member of the 

 Mackerel family, and the Echeneis, anxious to get away to pro- 

 tective shelter, makes for a turtle, and attaches itself to the 

 turtle's j)lastron by means of the large sucking apparatus on 

 the top of its head and neck-region. The men are guided by 

 the string, and the turtle is gently coaxed up towards the surface 

 or followed into shallow water, where it is either harpooned or 

 dived for. It is curious that this use of the Echeneis exists in 

 such widely separated parts of the world, the natives of which 

 cannot have any knowledge of each other. These modes of 

 catching turtles are sportsman-like, but the greatest and most 

 wanton destruction is practised at their breeding places. In 

 conformity with the wide distribution of these creatures, the time 

 of breeding is not the same everywhere. In the West Indian 

 region, and in the Straits of Malacca, it falls within the period of 

 April to June ; on the coast of West Africa it occurs from 

 September to January, The females come to their breeding 

 places from afar, reconnoitre the beach carefully, are extremely 

 wary and shy, taking alarm at the slightest disturbance, and at 

 last crawl on land. Well out of the reach of the tide the female 

 scoops out a hole in tlie sand, deposits about one hundred or 

 more of its round, rather parchment-shelled eggs, covers the nest 

 carefully, obliterating all traces of the dug-out sand, and makes 

 again for the sea by another route. At least they are said to 

 make a sort of circuitous route so that nobody can tell the 

 position of tlie nest, which may be anywhere beneath the broad 

 trail left by the heavy creature on its way from and back to the 

 sea. The nest is discovered by probing the sand with sticks. 

 The time of incubation is not known, but according to Asassiz, 

 lasts at least seven weeks. 



The " turning " of turtles is a cruel and wanton operation. 



