Diving for Turtles 



crawling laboriously upward. It was headed directly 

 for us, coming on slowly but surely, and in a few 

 minutes it was twenty feet from the water. 



Long John did not move, waiting until the unsus- 

 pecting turtle was within ten feet of us, then we 

 sprang at it, and as I reached its side I was amazed 

 at its size the veritable king of the logger- 

 heads, its back, broad enough to hold three men 

 standing, its huge head and jaws showing plainly, 

 while its long and ponderous flippers gave it the 

 appearance of extraordinary width. As we sud- 

 denly appeared the turtle swung seaward, whirling 

 the sand in all directions in the violence of its rush. 

 John grasped the shell between the flippers and gave 

 a heroic lift, while I, missing my grasp, received a 

 volley of sand from the flippers and fell upon my 

 side. 



" Get in front," cried Long John, who, unable to 

 make the turn single handed had swung himself upon 

 the back of the frightened animal and was endeavor- 

 ing to stop it by thrusting his feet into the sand. But 

 to get in front and stay there were two different 

 propositions. To face the ugly head and horny jaws 

 of the great animal, without a weapon, was not to 

 my taste, so after vainly resisting its charge, I fell 

 back, and both of us grasped it by the side and lifted. 

 Up it came a foot, and then another, Long John 

 shouting all the nautical epithets of encouragement 

 and invective he could think of; but the moment the 



