TURTLE AND SPONGE FISHING. 283 



and there scratches out a great circular hollow, throwing out 

 the sand with her flippers. As the creature turns herself round 

 and round in the hole it becomes smooth within, like a basin, 

 and about sufficiently deep for the turtle to sink below the 

 level of the surrounding sand. Then in the midddle of this 

 pit she digs out a small perpendicular cavity, about the depth 

 of a man's arm, and therein deposits her eggs to the number 

 of over a hundred, and filling up the whole excavation, returns 

 to sea. Thus, though a man may easily find the track of a 

 turtle, it takes great experience to discover the eggs. Native 

 fishers on bright moonlight nights walk round the beach after 

 high-tide and look for the signs of turtle, as the animal leaves 

 a broad track on the sand. 



If the fisher finds the tracks of a turtle on the sand, but 

 should not succeed in catching it, he will generally know 

 whether the turtle has been lately on shore there before ; if 

 there are no signs of a previous visit, he will look out again 

 for it on the ninth night from that time, and if it does not 

 come then, on the eighteenth, for if no accident has occurred 

 to it in the meantime it will assuredly return at one of these 

 periods, exactly at the same spot, or not more than a cable's 

 length to leeward never to windward. If it should not 

 come back on the eighteenth night from its first appearance, 

 it Avill never return any more, at least until the following year. 



It struck me as curious that an animal of so stupid an 

 appearance should display so marvellous an instinct in the 

 observance of times and seasons. Moreover, the female turtle 

 are very clever in the concealment of their eggs. If they 

 perceive a man in the neighbourhood, instead of instantly 

 rushing away, with the certainty of capture, they will lie con- 

 cealed for hours, as though in hope that he may depart with- 

 out perceiving them. 



