THE TORTOISE AND TURTLE. 33 



Instead of the short and misshapen legs that serve the 

 purposes of locomotion to the latter, they are furnished with 

 paddles that enable them to swim with great rapidity, and 

 were it not for their sleeping habits, and for the necessity 

 for the females to go ashore to lay their eggs, man would 

 have but few opportunities of enjoying turtle soup, for 

 their speed is far greater than that at which any boat 

 could be rowed. They are thus able to obtain an abun- 

 dance of food from the slower moving fish ; and as their 

 power of jaw is very great they are practically masters 

 of the waters they frequent. Those close observers, the 

 Chinese, who have a marked partiality for turtle, do not 

 rely wholly upon its sleepiness of habit or its occasional 

 landings for their supply of soup ; they employ in their 

 service a fish of the Remora species, which is of peculiar 

 construction, and possesses a great power of grip. These 

 fish are trained to the work, and taken out in tubs in the 

 fishing boats. To the tail of each fish a ring is attached, 

 and to this the fisherman attaches a long cord, and slips the 

 fish overboard as soon as they approach a basking turtle. 

 Directly the fish discovers the turtle, it makes towards it, 

 and fixes itself firmly to it by means of a peculiar apparatus 

 upon its head. The fisherman then hauls in the rope, and 

 pulls both fish and turtle to the boat, and on getting them 

 on board pushes the fish's head forward, when it at once 

 looses its hold. The story would appear incredible were it 

 not vouched for on high authority. 



Except as an example to man of patience under a 

 singularly joyless life, the purpose of the land tortoise is 

 not very marked. The second lesson it teaches namely, 

 that a life of indolence and lethargy conduces to extreme 



