Turtle-turning 
was this. She employed her hind paddles 
alternately, and when one lifted up its load of 
sand, the other, with a spasmodic flick, would 
scatter the previous handful broadcast. I was 
so close to her that the sand hit me in the face 
with quite an appreciable sting. 
I now retreated, for I could see no more, since 
my turtle had delved a hole directly behind her, 
and rejoined my companion to await the time 
when our quarry should have deposited her eggs. 
I dug up some of the eggs to look at them— 
they are soft-shelled, white in colour, and in 
size nearly as large as a tennis-ball. A turtle, 
having laid a complement of eggs, covers them 
with sand, trusting to the heat of the sun to 
hatch out the young, who, on reaching the sea, 
have a precarious enough time of it, for their 
enemies are waiting to devour them in the water, 
whilst the gulls do likewise as the small turtles 
hurry over the sand to the water. A small 
percentage, therefore, arrive at maturity, when 
they attain an approximate weight of five hun- 
dred pounds. 
Next morning we signalled to the station with 
a semaphore, saying we had been successful in 
our catch, whereon a small steamboat arrived 
to bring the turtles in. The method of getting 
them on board was as simple as it was effective. 
To the centre of the fin ropes, now slackened, 
but not taken off, a long thin line was attached, 
67 
