NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 283 



hoping that the turtle would either get tired or be suffo- 

 cated. But, alas ! he got capsized, or, as Jack says, 

 turned the turtle, losing his paddle, his knife, and all his 

 fishinsr-tackle. Active as he was, he had all the diffi- 

 culty in the world to right his canoe. While he was 

 hard at work doing this, the turtle was acquiring fresh 

 strength and vigour, and when he had righted his little 

 bark it was soon upset again. In short this happened 

 nine or ten times within a day and two nights, during 

 which he was towed by the turtle without the possibility 

 of cutting or detaching the cord. At last this tartar of a 

 turtle got tired, and as good luck would have it, made 

 for a shoal, where the Indian managed to kill it, being 

 himself half dead with hunger, thirst, and fatigue. 



The third mode of capture noticed by Labat is by 

 setting nets, coloured red, so that the turtles may not 

 detect them, near the sandy shores where they go to lay 

 their eggs ; and he was present when, in the evening, the 

 nets were spread for a grande ^^cche. He describes the 

 nature of their oil or fat to be so penetrating, that if it 

 is placed on one side of the hand, and rubbed in with a 

 hot cloth, it will make its way to the opposite side, and 

 praises it as excellent for rheumatism. 



Catesby, in his Natural History of Canada, Florida, 

 and the Bahama Islands, says : — 



The sea-tortoise is by om- sailors vulgarlj' called turtle, whereof 

 there are four distiuct kinds : the green turtle, the haA\ksbill, the 

 loggerhead turtle, and the trunk turtle. They are all eatable ; 

 but the green turtle is that which all the inhabitants in America, 

 that live between the tropicks, subsist much upon. They much 

 excel the other kinds of turtle, and are in great esteem for the 

 wholesome and agreeable food they afford. 



Catesby was a good observer, and his information may 

 be generally relied on. He tells us that all sorts of 

 turtle, except the loggerhead, are timorous, and make 

 little resistance when taken; but that all the kinds dur- 

 ing the season of love are very furious and regardless of 



