Giant Fish of Florida 



and muscles, and requiring some skill ; but it is, of course, 

 only a bastard form of sport, and is usually resorted to on 

 days when the tarpon will not feed, or the tide is too strong 

 for fishing. The turtle is the only useful animal taken on that 

 coast by such means, and there is this excuse for harpooning 

 your turtle that you cannot get them in any other way. The 

 turtle's cousin on land, the gophir tortoise, which is common 

 enough in those parts, is said to be taken in a very curious way, 

 though, as the animal is useless, few put it to the test. This 

 tortoise lives in underground burrows, not unlike rabbit earths, 

 and its abundance may be judged by the number of such 

 burrows. Into these the natives say they drop a ball attached 

 to a string, a sudden intrusion that infuriates the occupant of 

 the burrow, who, in his slow and sure fashion, pursues it into 

 daylight, and is then easily secured. I hand on the story for 

 what the cautious reader may think it worth. Personally, I am 

 not much inclined, from my limited knowledge of reptile 

 habits, to credit it. 



The turtles come ashore in the warm May nights to lay 

 their eggs, and the female, as soon as she touches land, 

 raises her head and peers cautiously around to see that the 

 coast is clear. Satisfied on this point, she scrambles on to the 

 dry sand and above high-water mark, scrapes a hole and 

 therein deposits her eggs, covers them up, and returns to the 

 sea. Three sittings she will lay each season, and many a 

 banquet is thus provided for racoons. It is at this laying 



121 



