TURTLES. 39 



for two or three years in the ponds. She con- 

 trived, however, one night to crawl round the 

 enclosure, and make her escape ; but she was 

 turned next year in Clarence Bay. Another 

 Turtle was also turned there, a short time since, 

 on the back shell of which was carved the name 

 of a mate of a British vessel, who had bought 

 it and sailed with it three weeks before ; it is 

 probable that, imagining it to be dead, he had 

 thrown it overboard. The best way to send home 

 Turtle from Ascension, is to ' head them up ' in a 

 sealed cask, and have the w^ater changed daily 

 by the bung-hole and a cock. Turtle, though 

 the extremes of heat and cold are injurious to 

 them, should always arrive in hot weather in 

 England. Thus, an unfortunate captain, on one 

 occasion, took from Ascension two hundred Tur- 

 tle, and timing his arrival badly, brought only 

 four alive to Bristol ! " 



Catesby mentions a mode of capturing these 

 animals besides turning them on the sands. The 

 inhabitants of the Bahamas are very expert at 

 the latter, and go in boats to the neighbouring 

 coast of Cuba, where on moonlight nights they 

 watch the passing of the female Turtles to and 

 from their nests, and intercepting them, turn 

 them on their backs. Leaving each as it is 

 turned, they proceed along the shore, turning 

 every one they meet with ; knowing that they 

 will find each on their return in the position in 

 which it w^as left ; for the Turtle, lying on its 

 back, can never recover its feet by any efforts of 

 its own. Some are so large, as to require three 

 men to turn them. But the way in which these 

 creatures are most commonly taken at the Ba- 



