Flying Fish and Turtles 61 



and It is a pity that the demand for tortoise shell has 

 brought one magnificent animal as close to extinction as 

 the delicacy of its flesh has brought another. 



Georgetown, Grand Cayman, which we visited on sev- 

 eral occasions, is the center of the green-turtle industry. 

 The Cayman Islanders are expert boatbuilders, and their 

 fast-sailing schooners comb the cays of British Honduras 

 and Nicaragua, turtling for soup meat. I have been told 

 that most of the turtles are caught with a bullen, an iron 

 hoop to which is attached a deep net. The schooner 

 anchors. The small boats set out with one man to scull in 

 the stern and another in the bow peering down into the 

 clear water with a bucket having a glass bottom, called 

 a water glass. When a green turtle is spied resting on the 

 bottom the bullen is let down as close to it as possible, a 

 rope being attached to the apex of the net. The instant the 

 iron ring strikes bottom the turtle gives a surprised leap 

 upward, pushes its four fins out through the coarse mesh 

 of the net and, thus entangled, may be drawn to the sur- 

 face. Turtles, of course, are also "pegged" with a harpoon 

 having a little head which comes loose, with a line at- 

 tached. But this is less satisfactory in that turtles may be 

 badly injured, hence less likely to survive the long voyage 

 to market. 



They seem pitiful objects, with their great fins folded 

 across their breasts made fast with a bit of binder twine 

 rove through holes cut in their flippers. But I suspect that 

 this really doesn't hurt the turtle very much, as they seem 

 to pay little attention to much more shocking injuries. 

 Individuals are often seen that have lost a large part of one 

 or more flippers, so that in some cases they can swim only 



