186 0UR REPTILES. 



to good account, not because that plentiful country 

 wants provisions, but they are esteemed there as a 

 rarity, and for the delicacy of their flesh. They 

 feed on a kind of grass, growing at the bottom of 

 the sea,* commonly called turtle-grass. The inhabi- 

 tants of the Bahama Islands, by frequent practice, 

 are very expert at catching turtles, particularly the 

 Green Turtle. In April they go, in little boats, to 

 Cuba and other neighbouring islands, where, in the 

 evening, especially in moonlight nights, they watch 

 the going and returning of the Turtle to and from 

 their nests, at which time they turn them on their 

 backs, where they leave them, and proceed on turn- 

 ing all they meet ; for they cannot get on their feet 

 again when once turned. Some are so large that it 

 requires three men to turn one of them. The way 

 by which the Turtle are most commonly taken at 

 the Bahama Islands is by striking them with a 

 small iron peg of two inches long, put in a socket, 

 at the end of a staff of twelve feet long. Two men 

 usually set out for this work in a little light boat or 

 canoe, one to row and gently steer the boat, while 

 the other stands at the head of it with his striker. 

 The Turtle are sometimes discovered by their swim- 

 ming with their head and back out of the water; 

 but they are oftenest discovered lying at the 



* It, is not a grass, but the sea-wrack (Zostera marina), which 

 is here alluded to. 



