216 SPOKT IN KOUTH AxMERIOA. 



other point. When the fisherman, seated in his boat, 

 sees a turtle come up to the top of the -water, he 

 approaches as quietly as possible, and, when he gets 

 within ten or a dozen 3^ards, he throws his spear right 

 at the middle of his back, so as to transfix him. 

 Directly the turtle is hit, the wooden handle is 

 loosened from the pin, the turtle, maddened with 

 pain, begins to struggle convulsively, and the more 

 it does so the deeper does the pin become inserted 

 into the wound, and after a great deal of cautious 

 playing the fisherman usually succeeds in bringing 

 his prey alongside. Downing told me that, in this 

 way alone, one of his men managed to catch eight 

 hundred turtles in one year. 



Next morning at daybreak Downing awoke me 

 and took me to his reservoir, a sort of square con- 

 struction or wooden enclosure, built of enormous 

 stumps separated from each other, so that the tide 

 could get in, but the turtles could not get out. There 

 we found all the turtles which had been caught the 

 night before, having been brought thither by the 

 boats. They were crawling about and doing their 

 best to get out again to the sea. Flight, however, 

 was quite impossible. 



It had been settled that we should spend two 

 days at Hetera, to fish and shoot. I enjoyed a good 

 deal of the latter sport along the shore and in the 

 woods, where I found a great variety of water-fowl, 

 besides stags, pheasants, parrots, and other talking- 



