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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