TURTLE CATCHING. 179 
unmerciful waves generally throw them back again upon the 
shore. Here they are attacked by great sea-birds, storks and 
herons, against which, in spite of their smallness, they make 
feeble efforts of defence, or by still more powerful beasts of 
prey; and thus the greater part of the unfortunate brood is 
destroyed at its very first entrance into life; while those which 
reach the sea, are generally devoured by sharks and other sharp- 
toothed fishes. It is therefore not in vain that the turtle lays 
four or five hundred eggs in the course of a single summer, for 
were she less fruitful, the race would long since have been ex- 
tinguished. 
I need hardly mention, that the flesh of the green turtle is 
everywhere esteemed as a first-rate delicacy. The king of the 
Manga Reva Islands in the South Sea keeps them in a pen for 
the wants of his table; and the London alderman is said to 
know no greater enjoyment than swallowing a basin of turtle- 
soup. Hence it is no wonder that the mariner, tired of salt-beef 
and dried peas, persecutes them on all the coasts of the tropical 
seas, wherever solitude, a flat beach, and a favourable season 
promise to reward his trouble. 
Bernardin de St. Pierre gives us the following picturesque 
description of turtle-catching on Ascension Island ;— “ Fire- 
wood, a kettle, and the great boat-sail were landed, and the 
sailors lay down to sleep, as the turtles do not emerge from the 
sea before night-fall. The moon rose above the horizon and 
illumined the solitude, but her light, which adds new charms to 
a friendly prospect, rendered this desolate scene more dreary 
still. We were at the foot of a black hillock, on whose summit 
mariners had planted a great cross. Before us lay the plain, 
covered with innumerable blocks of black lava, whose crests, 
whitened by the drippings of the sea-birds, glistened in the 
moonbeam. These pallid heads on dark bodies, some of which 
were upright, and others reclined, appeared to us like phantoms 
hovering over tombs. The greatest stillness reigned over this 
desolate earth, interrupted only from time to time by the break- 
ing of a wave, or the shriek of a sea-bird. We went to the 
great bay to await the arrival of the turtles, and there we lay 
flat upon the sand in the deepest silence, as the least noise 
frightens the turtles, and causes them to withdraw. At last we 
