346 TORTOISES AND TURTLES 



miglit lame him, cants her over on her back, where she lies help- 

 less. From, fifteen to thirty are thus turned in a night. In 

 the bays, when the surf or heavy rollers prevent the boats being 

 beached to take on board the turtles when caught, they are 

 hauled out to them by ropes. 



In former times, as long as the island had neither master nor 

 inhabitants, every ship's crew that landed helped itself to as 

 many turtles as it could catch ; but since England has taken 

 possession of the island, turtle-turning has been converted into 

 a Grovernment monopoly, and £2 10s. is the fixed price for 

 each. They are kept in two large enclosures near the sea, 

 which flows in and out, through a breakwater of large stones, 

 A gallows is erected between the two ponds, where the turtles 

 are slaughtered for shipping, by suspending them by the hind- 

 flippers and then cutting their throats. Often above 300 turtles, 

 of 400 lbs. and 500 lbs. each, are lying on the sand or swim- 

 ming about in the ponds — a sight to set an alderman mad 

 with delight. The best v/ay to send home turtles from Ascen- 

 sion is to head them up in a cask, and have the water changed 

 daily by the bunghole and a cock. Though the extremes 

 of heat and cold are equally injurious to them, they should 

 always arrive in England during hot weather. Thus an un- 

 fortunate captain, on one occasion, took from Ascension 200 

 turtles, and timing his arrival badly, brought only four of them 

 alive to Bristol. 



The way by which the turtles are most commonly taken at 

 the Bahama Islands is by striking them with a small iron peg 

 of two inches long, put in a socket at the end of a staff of twelve 

 feet long. Two men usually set out for this work in a canoe, 

 one to row and gently steer the boat, while the other stands at 

 the end of it with his weapon. The turtles are sometimes dis- 

 covered by their swimming with their head and back out of 

 the water, but they are more often seen lying at the bottom, a 

 fathom or more deep. If a turtle perceives he is discovered, he 

 starts up to make his escape ; the men in the boat, pursuing him, 

 endeavour to keep sight of him, which they often lose and 

 recover again by the turtle putting his nose out of the water to 

 breathe. 



On Keeling Island, Mr. Darwin witnessed another highly 

 interesting method of catching tiutle, which he describes in the 



