HAWKSBILL TURTLE. 23 



Islanders are accustomed to dry the flesh to supply 

 them with food during* their vo^^ag'es. The meat is 

 cut into thin slices, hoiled in a melon shell, stuck 

 upon skewers, and dried in the sun. Prej)ared in 

 this manner it will keep for several "weeks, but 

 requires a second cooking* before being- used, on 

 account of its hardness and toug'hness. The fat 

 which rises to the surface durino- the boiling- is 

 skimmed off and kept in joints of bamboo and 

 turtle's bladders, being* much prized as food ; I 

 have even seen the natives drink it off in its hot 

 fluid state with as much g'usto as ever alderman 

 enjo3'ed his elaborately prepared turtle soup. 



The liaAvksbill turtle {Cm^etta imbricafa), that 

 chiefly producing* the tortoise-shell of commerce, 

 resorts to the shores in the neighbourhood of Cape 

 York later in the season than the green species, and 

 is comparatively scarce. It is only taken at night 

 when depositing its eggs in the sand, as the sharp- 

 ness of the marg*in of its shell renders it dangerous 

 to attempt to turn it in the water,— indeed even the 

 green turtle, with a comparatively rounded margin 

 to the carapace, occasionally, in struggling* to 

 escape, inflicts deep cuts on the inner side of the leg 

 of its captor, of which I m^^self have seen an instance. 

 Of the tortoise-shell collected at Cape York and the 

 Prince of Wales Islands a small portion is con- 

 verted into fish-hooks, the rest is bartered either to 

 Europeans or to the Island blacks, who fashion it 

 into various ornaments. 



