INTRODUCTION. VIl 



to eat almost anything — seaweed, sponges, Crustacea, mollusks, fish, etc. A 

 massive sponge growing around the Florida Keys is called Loggerhead 

 sponge, because, as the fishermen say, the turtles are very fond of it. 

 They take Conchs from their shells by biting off the small end of the 

 spiral. The Bastard Turtle, CoJpochelys, is smaller than, and intermediate 

 between, Loggerheads and Green. Green Turtles, Chelonia, are reported 

 to weigh as much as eight hundred pounds. They are most prized for the 

 markets. A peculiar grass, Zostera, growing on the bottom in shoal places, 

 is said to be their main dependence for food. A great many are shipped 

 from Florida and the West Indies to the Northern States and Europe. 

 Hawkbills or Shell-backs, Eretmochelys, are valued as the source of the 

 shell used in the arts. One hundred and sixty pounds is a large weight. 

 All of the marine species are used as food, but the Green is most sought. 

 Many men do little else than supply the markets with the meat and eggs. 

 According to an expert in these matters, Richard M. Kemp, turtlers most 

 often make their captures by means of the peg. Bits of the grass floating 

 above the grazing turtles betray their whereabout, and if they are not 

 startled it is not difficult to fasten the peg in the shell. A peg is an iron 

 instrument like a blunt nail, to which a line is attached, and which, when 

 driven into the shell, easily slips out of the end of the long pole in which 

 it is placed. By means of the line the turtle is drawn on board the 

 boat. Mr. Kemp says that the Bastard and the Leather-back couple and 

 lay in December, January and February, and the Hawkbill, Loggerhead, 

 and Green in April, May and June. When about to deposit the eggs, the 

 only time the shore is visited, the female selects some sandy beach, and in 

 the night drags herself out above high-water mark. Here she digs a hole 

 of one to two feet in depth, in which she drops seventy-five to two hundred 

 eggs. She then covers the nest carefully, packing down the sand with her 

 body, and retreats to the water. Fourteen or fifteen nights afterward she 

 returns to make another nest near the fii*st. Three to five times in a season, 

 the fishermen say, she returns in this way. If a turtler going his rounds 

 in the morning finds the tracks made on the way to and from the nest, he 

 takes a short stick and carefully thrusts it down here and there in the 

 trampled space until pushed through an egs,, the yolk upon the probe dis- 

 covers the nest. Fourteen nights later he is on the ground waiting till the 

 ci'eature comes ashore, when he turns her on her back, and in the morning 

 carries her to the markets. Persons in the business claim that there is no 



