Turtle Catching. 26 < 



four-cornered, but flattish, and of a shape somewhat re- 

 sembling the beak of an ivory-billed woodpecker, together 

 with a neck and shoulder. Between the two shoulders of 

 (his instrument a fine tough line, fifty or more fathoms in 

 length, was fastened by one end, being passed through a 

 hole in the centre of the peg, and the line itself was care- 

 fully coiled up and placed in a convenient part of the 

 canoe. One extremity of this peg enters a sheath of iron 

 that loosely attaches it to a long wooden spear, until a 

 turtle has been pierced through the shell by the other ex- 

 tremity. He of the canoe paddles away as silently as 

 possible whenever he espies a turtle basking on the wa- 

 ter, until he gets within a distance of ten or twelve yards, 

 when he throws the spear so as to hit the animal about 

 the place which an entomologist would choose, were it a 

 large insect, for pinning to a piece of cork. As soon as 

 the turtle is struck, the wooden handle separates from the 

 peg, in consequence of the looseness of its attachment. 

 The smart of the wound urges on the animal as if dis 

 tracted, and it appears that the longer the peg remains in 

 its shell, the more firmly fastened it is, so great a pressure 

 is exercised upon it by the shell of the turtle, which being 

 suffered to run like a whale, soon becomes fatigued, and 

 is secured by hauling in the line with great care. In this 

 manner, as the pilot informed me, eight hundred green 

 turtles were caught by one man in twelve months. 



" Each turtle has its ' crawl,' which is a square wood- 

 en building or pen, formed of logs, which are so far sepa- 

 rated as to allow the tide to pass freely through, and 

 stand erect in the mud. The turtles are placed in this 

 enclosure, fed and kept there till sold. There is, however, 

 a circumstance relating to their habits which I cannot 

 omit, although I have it not from my own ocular evidence, 

 but from report. When I was in Florida several of the 

 turtlers assured me, that any turtle taken from the depos- 

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