The Glory Hole 111 



of Panama, went ashore turtling. The crews carried the 

 beasts down to the beach, boated them to the ships, and 

 piled them up in their empty holds. Here, being the strange 

 creatures that they are, they survived for months without 

 food or water. When scurvy appeared the turtles were 

 butchered. The flesh was savory even when poorly pre- 

 pared. There was enough fat in each one to shorten a mess 

 of "duff," and the water in their bladders was cool and 

 clear. I have seen a compilation made from about thirty 

 whalers' logs which shows that they carried off more than 

 eleven thousand of these animals. Once they occurred in 

 countless multitudes on no fewer than nine of the islands. 

 Seventeen zoological species of turtles have been described. 

 But this is not the point which we want the magnificent 

 specimen at Salem to illustrate — rather, what turtles like 

 this meant to seamen from the time of Dampier down 

 to about 1867, when petroleum knocked out whale oil. 

 Probably no less than half a million turpin were carried 

 away, and now all the races of the creatures are rare or 

 extinct. 



Captain Phillips brought back from Fiji an enormous 

 giant clam. The superb pair of matched valves are at least 

 three feet long and weigh over a hundred pounds each. 

 But I don't want this to be a malacological specimen — 

 rather, the terror of the pearl diver. For if a diver inad- 

 vertently thrust a hand or a foot into one of these gaping 

 shells as it yawned open, the instant reaction was for the 

 animal to close up, like any other clam, and the death of 

 the diver ensued. 



These giant clams were undoubtedly eaten, the meat 

 being chopped fine and stewed. No doubt it was as good 



