Ce PTURING TURTLES. 161 
homogeneous ; it can be cut with precision ; and, under the influence 
of a gentle hect, will soften so that it can be modelled into any 
fashion dictated by the taste of the moulder; which shape it retains 
after becoming cool. 
While most of the Turtles are highly useful to man, both for food 
and other purposes, the most valuable is the Green Turtle (Che/onia 
mydas, Fig. 38), so called from the reflected green of its carapace. 
It abounds in the southern Atlantic Ocean, only visiting land in the 
breeding seasons, when it shows a marked preference for the islands 
of Ascension and St. Vincent. When sleeping on the surface of 
the sea, it is easily taken by a noose being placed over its head as 
the boat containing the captors silently glides past. It is even said 
to be a practice with Malay fishermen to dive beneath a sleeping 
turtle, and, attaching a cord to their flippers, take them. 
In the regions where this valuable animal breeds, their pursuers 
follow them by their track on the sands, cut off their retreat, and 
throw them on their backs ; from their great size, hand-spikes some- 
times being necessary to accomplish this. In this position they are 
helpless, and so remain while their enemies continue their sport, 
as represented in PLaTE III. In 1802 the crew of a French ship 
surprised a female turtle on the Island of Lobos. The men had 
infinite trouble in making good its capture and throwing it on its 
back, from its immense size and strength. Its head was as large as 
that of an infant, and its beak four times the size of a macaw’s. In 
its body 347 eggs were found. ‘Turtles are also taken in nets, their 
beaks and flippers getting entangled in the meshes ; thus prevented 
from coming to the surface for air, they die of asphyxia. Others 
harpoon them on the open sea. The harpoon is attached to a cord, 
by which the animal is soon brought to the surface and drawn on 
board. But the commonest mode of capture is approaching them 
silently in a boat as they float asleep. When within reach, a back 
flipper is laid hold of by one of the crew, and by a sudden twist the 
turtle is thrown on its back, when, becoming helpless for the moment, 
it is dragged on board. 
A very curious mode of fishing for turtle is pursued by means 
of a species of FAchineis remora. These small fish are provided 
with an oval plate on the head, which consists of a score of parallel 
plates, forming two series, furnished on their outer edge with an oval 
disc, soft and fleshy at its circumference ; in the middle of this plate 
is a complicated apparatus of bony pieces dispersed across the 
surface, which can be moved on their axis by particular muscles, 
their free edges being furnished with small hooks, which are all 
G 
