346 



HISTORY OF FISHES. 



together, at the breeding season, when they 

 are very easily approached, and as easily 

 seen ; for these animals, though capable of 

 living for some time under water, yet rise 

 every eight or ten minutes to breathe. As 



into a lump of butter. This species is therefore con- 

 sidered as the least valuable, and indeed is seldom eaten, 

 unless by the Indians, who, ever alert when the turtle 

 season commences, first carry oft" the eggs, and after- 

 wards catch the turtles themselves. The average num- 

 ber of eggs which it lays in the season, in two sets, may 

 be three hundred and fifty. 



" The loggerhead and the trunk turtles are the least 

 cautious in choosing the places in which to deposit their 

 eggs, whereas the two other species select the wildest 

 and most secluded spots. The green turtle resorts 

 either to the shores of the main, between Cape Sable 

 and Cape Florida, or enters Indian, Halifax, and other 

 large rivers or inlets, from which it makes its retreat as 

 speedily as possible, and betakes itself to the open sea. 

 Great numbers, however, are killed by the turtlers and 

 Indians, as well as by various species of carnivorous ani- 

 mals, as cougars, lynxes, bears, and wolves. The hawks- 

 bill, which is still more wary, and is always the most 

 difficult to surprise, keeps to the sea islands. All the 

 species employ nearly the same method in depositing 

 their eggs in the sand, and as I have several times 

 observed them in the act, I am enabled to present you 

 with a circumstantial account of it. 



*' On first nearing the shores, and mostly on fine calm 

 moonlight nights, the turtle raises her head above the 

 water, being still distant thirty or forty yards from the 

 beach, looks around her, and attentively examines the 

 objects on the shore. Should she observe nothing likely 

 to disturb her intended operations, she emits a loud hiss- 

 ing sound, by which such of her many enemies as are 

 unaccustomed to it are startled, and so are apt to remove 

 to another place, although unseen by her. Should she 

 hear any noise, or perceive indications of danger, she 

 instantly sinks and goes off to a considerable distance ; 

 but should every thing be quiet, she advances slowly 

 towards the beach, crawls over it, her head raised to the 

 full stretch of her neck ; and when she has reached a 

 place fitted for her purpose, she gazes all round in 

 silence. Finding ' all well,' she proceeds to form a hole 

 in the sand, which she effects by removing it from under 

 her body with her hind flappers, scooping it out with so 

 much dexterity that the sides seldom if ever fall in. The 

 sand is raised alternately with each flapper, as with a 

 large ladle, until it has accumulated behind her, when 

 supporting herself with her head and fore part on the 

 ground fronting her body, she with a spring from each 

 flapper sends the sand around her, scattering it to the 

 distance of several feet. In this manner the hole is dug 

 to the depth of eighteen inches, or sometimes more than 

 two feet. This labour I have seen performed in the 

 short period of nine minutes. The eggs are then dropped 

 one by one, and disposed in regular layers, to the number 

 of a hundred and fifty, or sometimes nearly two hundred. 

 The whole time spent in this part of the operation may 

 be about twenty minutes. She now scrapes the loose 

 sand back over the eggs, and so levels and smooths the 

 surface that few persons on seeing the spot could ima- 

 gine any thing had been done to it. This accomplished 

 to her mind, she retreats to the water with all possible 

 dispatch, leaving the hatching of the eggs to the heat of 

 the sand. When a turtle, a loggerhead for example, is 

 in the act of dropping her eggs, she will not move 

 although one should go up to her, or even seat himself 

 on her back, for it seems that at this moment she finds 

 it necessary to proceed at all events, and is unable to in- 

 termit her labour. The moment it is finished, how- 



soon as they are thus perceived, two or three 

 people draw near them in a canoe, and slip a 

 noose either round their necks or one of their 

 feet. If they have no line, they lay hold of 

 them by the neck, where they have no shell, 



ever, off she starts ; nor would it then be possible for 

 one, unless he were as strong as a Hercules, to turn her 

 over and secure her. 



" To upset a turtle on the shore, one is obliged to fall 

 on his knees, and, placing his shoulder behind her 

 forearm, gradually raise her up by pushing with great 

 force, and then with a jerk throw her over. Sometimes 

 it requires the united strength of several men to accom- 

 plish this; and if the turtle should be of very great 

 size, as often happens on that coast, even hand-spikes 

 are employed. Some turtlers are so daring as to swim 

 up to them while lying asleep on the surface of the 

 water, and turn them over in their own element, when, 

 however, a boat must be at hand to enable them to secure 

 their prize. Few turtles can bite beyond the reach of 

 their forelegs, and few, when once turned over, can with- 

 out assistance regain their natural position ; but notwith- 

 standing this, their flappers are generally secured by 

 ropes, so as to render their escape impossible. 



" Persons who search for turtles' eggs are provided 

 with a light stiff cane or gun-rod, with which they go 

 along the shores, probing the sand near the tracks of the 

 animals, which, however, cannot always be seen, on ac- 

 count of the winds and heavy rains that often obliterate 

 them. The nests are discovered not only by men, but 

 also by beasts of prey, and the eggs are collected, or des- 

 troyed on the spot in great numbers, as on certain parts 

 of the shores hundreds of turtles are known to deposit 

 their eggs within the space of a mile. They form a 

 new hole each time they lay, and the second is gener- 

 ally dug near the first, as if the animal were quite un- 

 conscious of what had befallen it. It will be readily 

 understood that the numerous eggs seen in a turtle on 

 cutting it up could not be all laid the same season. The 

 whole number deposited by an individual in one summer 

 may amount to four hundred, whereas if the animal is 

 caught on or near her nest, as I have witnessed, the re- 

 maining eggs, all small, without shells, and as it were 

 threaded like so many large beads, exceed three thou- 

 sand. In an instance where I found that number, the 

 turtle weighed nearly four hundred pounds. The young, 

 soon after being hatched, and when yet scarcely larger 

 than a dollar, scratch their way through their sandy cov- 

 ering, and immediately betake themselves to the water. 



" The food of the green turtle consists chiefly of ma- 

 rine plants, more especially the grasswrack (Zostera ma- 

 rina), which they cut near the roots to procure the most 

 tender and succulent parts. Their feeding grounds, as 

 I have elsewhere said, are easily discovered by floating 

 masses of these plants on the flats, or along the shores to 

 which they resort. The hawk-billed species feeds on 

 sea-weeds, crabs, various kinds of shell-fish, and fishes ; 

 the loggerhead mostly on the fish of conch-shells of large 

 size, which they are enabled, by means of their powerful 

 beak, to crush to pieces with apparently as much ease as 

 a man cracks a walnut. One which was brought on board 

 the Marion, and placed near the fluke of one of her an- 

 chors, made a deep indentation in that hammered piece 

 of iron that quite surprised me. The trunk turtle feeds 

 on mollusca, fish, Crustacea, sea urchins, and various 

 marine plants. 



" All the species move through the water with sur- 

 prising speed ; but the green and hawk-billed in par- 

 ticular remind you, by their celerity and the ease of 

 their motions, of the progress of a bird in the air. It 

 is therefore no easy matter to strike one with a spear, and 

 yet this is often done by an accomplished turtler. . . 



