11 



EPISODES 



117 



in a Turtle on cutting it up, could not be all laid the same 

 season. The whole number deposited by an individual in 

 one summer may umount to four hundred, whereas, if the 

 animal is caught on or near her nest, as I have witnessed, 

 the remaining eggs, all small, without shells, and as it were 

 threaded like so many large beads, exceed three thousand. 

 In an instance where I found that number, the Turtle 

 weighed nearly four hundred pounds. The young, soon 

 after being hatched, and when yet scarcely larger than a 

 dollar, scratch their way through their sandy covering, 

 and immediately betake themselves to the water. 



The food of the Green Turtle consists chiefly of marine 

 plants, more especially the Grasswrack [Zostcra marina) 

 which they cut near the roots to procure the most tender 

 and succulent parts. Their feeding-grounds, as I have 

 elsewhere said, are easily discovered by floating masses 

 of these plants on the flats, or along the shores to 

 which they resort. The Hawk-billed species feeds on 

 sea-weeds, crabs, various kinds of shell-fish and fishes; 

 the Logger-head mostly on the fish of conch-shells of 

 large size, which they are enabled, by means of their 

 powerful beak, to crush to pieces with apparently as much 

 ease as a man cracks a walnut. One which was brought 

 on board the " Marion," and placed near the fluke of one 

 of her anchors, made a deep indentation in that hammered 

 piece of iron, which quite surprised me. The Trunk 

 Turtle feeds on mollusca, fish, Crustacea, sea urchins, and 

 various marine plants. 



All the species move through the water with surprising 

 speed ; but the Green and Hawk-billed, in particular, re- 

 mind you, by their celerity and the ease of their motions, 

 of the progress of a bird in the air. It is, therefore, no 

 easy matter to strike one with a spear, and yet this is 

 often done by an accomplished turtler. . . 



While at Key West, and other islands on the coast, 

 where I made the observations here presented to you, I 



