TURTLES AND TURTLE-CATCHING 



tropical and sub-tropical regions, and sometimes even in 

 colder latitudes. Their weight and size are very variable ; 

 some of them turn the scale at seven hundredweight. 

 The age which they reach is still a much-disputed point ; 

 but satisfactory proof has been given that some have lived 

 for eighty years. 



Generally speaking the turtle is quiet and inoffensive ; 

 too well protected by Nature for it to have many enemies, 

 and too stupid and sluggish to offer violence. There is an 

 exception where the alligator-terrapin is concerned ; this, 

 known also as the snapper, is a fresh-water turtle found in 

 the pools east of the Rocky Mountains and in certain 

 parts of South America. It has a tail like that of the 

 crocodile, and is an implacable opponent of all other 

 reptiles, spending half its time in slaughtering young 

 alligators. More power to that turtle! Unluckily it is 

 not only one of the eatable sort, but its flesh is more 

 highly prized for the table than that of any other of its 

 kind; and therefore it is hunted down without mercy, 

 thus benefiting the few, when, if left alone, it would be 

 an advantage to the many. 



The smaller terrapins, too, the red-bellied and the 

 yellow-bellied, caught respectively in Virginia and Florida, 

 are also much valued as delicacies, as is also the salt- 

 water terrapin of Florida and the Gulf of Mexico. Large 

 fresh-water turtles, three feet long, are taken from the 

 Ganges, Yang-tse-Kiang, Nile, and other great rivers, and 

 are largely eaten by the natives. 



How to catch and kill animals so well shielded natur- 

 ally, is a problem which both savage and civilised hunters 



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