6o WITH THE U. S. NATURALISTS 



were a different matter. It was a part of the 

 boy's job to keep the larder supplied with these 

 from time to time. 



Accordingly, a couple of days later, Shan started 

 off to visit his turtle traps. Although there is not 

 much flesh in a snapping turtle, the meat is rich, 

 and, in the spring of the year, large quantities of 

 eggs may be found, nearly an inch in length, strong 

 in flavor, with shells like tough white paper. 



Shan had made the turtle traps himself. They 

 were simple enough in construction. Around 

 three wooden barrel hoops, two feet apart from 

 each other, the boy stretched a stout tarred net, 

 leaving about eighteen inches of the net projecting 

 from either end of this net-barrel. These ends he 

 threaded with a draw-string and drew them half- 

 closed, making an opening about ten or eleven 

 inches in diameter, large enough for the biggest 

 turtle in those swamps to creep through. The 

 two ends were then pushed inside the length of the 

 barrel, and in the middle the boy placed some fish, 

 several days old, which had a smell that carried for 

 half a mile. The traps were then dropped in a 

 swamp — the more malodorous the better — and vis- 

 ited from time to time. 



A snapping turtle, scenting the fish, crawls 



