TURTLE CHASE. 251 



leys and hollows there were beautiful green and 

 other coloured fishes, and the forms and tints of 

 many of the zoophytes were admirable. It is 

 excusable to grow enthusiastic over the infinite 

 numbers of organic beings with which the sea of 

 the tropics, so prodigal of life, teems ; yet I must 

 confess I think those naturalists who have de- 

 scribed, in well-knovra words, the submarine 

 grottoes decked with a thousand beauties, have 

 indulged in rather exuberant language. 



April 6th. — I accompanied Captain Fitz Roy to 

 an island at the head of the lagoon : the channel 

 was exceedingly intricate, winding through fields 

 of delicately-branched corals. We saw several 

 turtle, and two boats were then employed in catch- 

 ing them. The water was so clear and shallow, 

 that although at first a turtle quickly dives out of 

 sight, yet in a canoe or boat under sail, the pur- 

 suers, after no very long chase, come up to it. A 

 man, standing ready in the bow, at this moment 

 dashes through the water upon the turtle's back ; 

 then clinging with both hands by the shell of its 

 neck, he is earned away till the animal becomes 

 exhausted and is secured. It was quite an inter- 

 esting chase to see the two boats thus doubling 

 about, and the men dashing head foremost into the 

 water trying to seize their prey. Captain Moresby 

 infonns me that in the Chagos Archipelago, in this 

 same ocean, the natives, by a homble pi-ocess, take 

 the shell from the back of the living turtle. " It is 

 covered with biirning charcoal, which causes the 

 outer shell to curl upwards ; it is then forced off 

 with a knife, and, before it becomes cold, flattened 

 between boards. After this barbarous process the 

 animal is suffered to regain its native element, 

 where, after a certain time, a new shell is form- 

 ed ; it is, however, too thin to be of any sen'ice, 



