ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS 279 



leaped into the sea, many of those ill-fated men were 

 devoured by the lurking and rapacious sharks, and it 

 is said often to have happened that one man was at- 

 tacked at the same time by two fish. All efforts to 

 rescue these desperate men were in vain, whose cries 

 of distress were heard with horror and pity amid the 

 incessant cannonading of the fleets. 



The various whales, ice-whales, ' nursers ' &c, which 

 frequent the region of the islands, are rarely or never 

 pursued by the inhabitants here ; but the New Eng- 

 enders (the true American Dutchmen, balking at 

 nothing) come hither for the whaling, even as they 

 go to the African coast and as far as the Falkland 

 Islands, and, were other nations to allow them, they 

 would follow the whale into East Indian waters. 



The Turtle-catch is a more lucrative pursuit, and 

 for these Islanders is an important branch of trade. 

 Three varieties of turtles are hunted, whether for 

 their flesh or their shells : 



Testudo imbricata Hawksbill. Testudo Myda 

 Green Turtle. Testudo Caretta Loggerhead. 



The turtle-shells used by artists come solely from 

 the first kind. After the fleshy parts have been taken 

 out, the whole shell is placed over a slow fire of coals; 

 the heat separates the upper transparent sheets from 

 the bony armor. 



The flesh of all three sorts is eaten here, as through- 

 out the West Indies, without distinction. But for 

 foreign markets chiefly none but the green turtles are 

 selected, and these during the summer months are ex- 

 ported to all parts of North America and Europe. 



All these turtles are found properly nowhere but in 

 the warmer waters of the Atlantic ocean ; but storms, 



