316 THE GREAT BARRIER REEF 



numbers. Formerly they swarmed in parts of the shallow 

 water between the shore and the reef, and were found in 

 great numbers through Torres Strait and in the Gulf of 

 Carpentaria. No discretion, however, was shown in the 

 numbers caught or the time of capture, with the inevitable 

 result that there are now but units where formerly there 

 were hundreds. Moreover, the animals have learned 

 caution, and the sight or smell of a human being is 

 sufficient to spread wild alarm through even the herds of 

 turtle, who lose no time in hastening to safer dwelling- 

 places. Many of their former most frequented haunts on 

 the reef have been entirely abandoned, and there are quays 

 on the reef where twenty or thirty years ago turtle might 

 be found in tens of thousands where now not a single 

 animal ever appears. As a few years ago these quays had 

 not been discovered by the fishermen who resort to the 

 reef from all parts of the east coast of the continent, and 

 even from more distant spots, turtlers not infrequently 

 coming from New Zealand, I shall not more precisely 

 mention the locality of these last resorts (as they appear 

 to be) of an animal that requires a long respite to recoup 

 its numbers. 



There are two species of turtle, the green (Chelone 

 My das) and the hawksbill (C. imbricata), common on the 

 reef; one, the loggerhead (Thalassochelys caretta), 

 tolerably common, at certain times at any rate ; and several 

 species which seem to be very scarce. Of the latter, the 

 leathery turtle {Dermochelys coriaced) is perhaps the 

 scarcest. There is another turtle, about which no authority 

 on the subject seems to know anything, and of which no 

 example is to be found in the British (or any other 

 European) Museum, but which is manifestly a connecting 

 link between the green and the hawksbill species. Indeed, 

 the turtle referred to partakes so remarkably of the 

 characteristics of the two named species, that I am inclined 

 to believe it is a hybrid between them. It grows to a 

 large size (five hundred pounds at least), and is often 

 almost as beautifully marked with deep red and yellow as 

 the hawksbill itself. It is rare on the reef, but not so 



