214 SPORT IN NOllTH AMEKICA. 



for the drifting of the sand, caused by winds and 

 waves, frequently effaces all the indications very 

 eflfectually. Before returning to Hetera Creek, the 

 wreckers, Downing and his men, and myself, 

 managed to turn up eighteen nests, and to gather 

 nearly seven hundred eggs.* 



The take was a very good one, and when Ave got 

 back again to the tent at Hetera, a comfortable sup- 

 per was waiting for us, and as we were eating it I 

 heard many of my companions narrating a variety of 

 strange anecdotes concerning the sea-turtles. 



Among other matters worth repeating, I noted 

 down these : — The green- coated turtles are so abun- 

 dant on these shores that five or six hundred men 

 could live upon them for many months without re- 

 quiring any other kind of food. The turtle of Hetera 

 are unusually large and fat, and their meat is so 



* The eggs of the turtle are taken away, and frequently indeed con- 

 sumed on the spot, in large quantities. This will astonish nobody, 

 when I state that on some of the Bahama islets, and all the islands 

 known as Florida Keys, the eggs of many hundreds of turtles may be 

 found within the space of a mile. The green turtles dig a fresh hole 

 for each laying ; the second is generally close to the first, as if the 

 turtle had no recollection of its former misfortune. It is easy to under- 

 stand that the multitude of eggs in a turtle's belly are not all intended 

 to be laid in the same year. The largest quantity which a single green 

 turtle lays at once is about 400. When a turtle is taken upon its uesb 

 in the act of laying, the eggs are found in the body quite small, with- 

 out covering, and massed together in quantities numbering up to 3000. 

 A short time after they are hatched, the little turtles find a way 

 through the sand which covers them, and so into the sea. Nothing 

 can be more curious than to see this army of small turtles, not larger 

 than small crabs, crawling towards the ocean with great rapidity. 



