100 REPTILIAN WATEE TRESPASSERS. 



times taken by a couple of men in a boat, who chase 

 the creature from spot to spot, and do not allow it to 

 rest for a single moment. When it is quite tired out 

 they strike the harpoon into it, and make it a com- 

 paratively easy prey. Even under these circumstances, 

 however, the turtle always dashes off at a great pace as 

 soon as it feels the point of the harpoon, and, were not 

 the weapon constructed so that the point becomes 

 detached from the shaft, .the violent movements of the 

 reptile would soon dislodge the harpoon, and, in all 

 probability, break the shaft to pieces. As it is, how- 

 ever, the shaft is shaken off, floats to the surface, and 

 is recovered, while the turtle is held by a strong line 

 that is attached to the iron point, which is buried 

 deeply in the reptile's back. 



So effective is the swimming apparatus, that some 

 of these creatures seem as much at home in the sea as 

 do the whale tribe, and may be found hundreds of 

 miles from land. A Loggerhead Turtle, for example, 

 was once captured midway between the Bahamas and 

 the Azores. 



The distance to which the creature can swim is the 

 more remarkable when we remember that although 

 the turtles pass nearly the whole of their lives in the 

 sea, they are forced to come to shore for the purpose 

 of depositing their eggs. This they all do in a very 

 similar manner. They select a sunny spot, some thirty 

 or forty yards above high-water mark, and scrape 

 a large hole by pushing their flat hind legs under 

 the sand, and jerking it away, just as a child throws 

 about the sand with its wooden spade. When the 

 female has made an excavation some two feet deep, she 



