TURTLES ON THE REEF 317 



much so as to make it very difficult to find. I have 

 seen eight or nine specimens, and heard of quite as many 

 more. 



The leathery turtle is a very extraordinary creature, 

 and is, I should think, the largest living turtle. I have 

 never assisted at the destruction of one of these animals, 

 but I have seen them so large that I think individuals 

 must have weighed at least half a ton. Intelligent fisher- 

 men with whom I sailed, and who 1 feel confident would 

 not exaggerate, assured me that one they captured and 

 took into Port Curtis weighed more than fourteen hundred 

 pounds. 



The food of the leathery turtle, like that of the hawks- 

 bill, quite differs in character from that of the green turtle. 

 It consists of fish, and particularly of molluscs and 

 crustaceans. It can crush up with ease large bivalves, 

 some of which weigh thirty or forty pounds ; and huge 

 crabs form no small item of its usual food. It seems, like 

 the hawksbill, also to be a greedy feeder. I have seen the 

 hawksbill seize and devour crabs which weighed sixteen 

 or twenty pounds, and amongst the contents of the 

 stomach of a leathery turtle which were showed to me, 

 were the remains of a large spider-crab clearly discernible, 

 mixed with a mass of molluscs, looking like huge cockles ; 

 and which were probably obtained at a depth of eighty or 

 ninety fathoms on the outside of the reef. 



Of the other kinds of turtle, it is only necessary to 

 record that I have assisted at the capture of specimens of 

 the green which weighed over five hundred pounds, and 

 specimens of hawksbill have been taken in my presence 

 which exceeded seven hundred pounds in weight. Both 

 these species are in the habit of sleeping as they float on 

 the surface of the water ; and though they awake and dash 

 off before a boat can get near them, they are not at all 

 disturbed by half a dozen terns alighting on their backs ; 

 and I have often seen these birds and other sea- fowl 

 resting on the backs of sleeping turtles. 



As most of the Australian fishes are found on the reef, 

 so are the greater part of Australian sea-birds. The 



