88 CLASS REPTILIA. 



forty sloops are employed by the inhabitants of Port Royal, 

 in Jamaica, for the catching them. The markets are there 

 supplied with turtle as ours are with butcher''s meat. The 

 Bahamians carry many of them to Carolina, where they turn 

 to good account, not because that plentiful country wants 

 provisions, but they are esteemed there as a rarity, and for 

 the delicacy of their flesh. They feed on a kind of grass 

 growing at the bottom of the sea, commonly called turtle- 

 grass. The inhabitants of the Bahama Islands, by often 

 practice, are very expert at catching turtles, particularly the 

 green turtles. In April, they go in little boats to Cuba, and 

 other neighbouring islands, where, in the evening, and espe- 

 cially in moonlight nights, they watch the going and return- 

 ing of the turtle to and from their nests, at which time they 

 turn them on their backs, where they leave them, and pro- 

 ceed on, turning all they meet : for they cannot get on their 

 feet again when once turned. Some are so large that it 

 requires three men to turn one of them. The way by which 

 the turtle are most commonly taken at the Bahama Islands is by 

 striking them with a small iron peg of two inches long, put 

 in a socket at the end of a staff twelve feet long. Two men 

 usually set out for this work in a little light boat or canoe, 

 one to row and gently steer the boat, while the other stands 

 at the head of it with his striker. The turtle are sometimes 

 discovered by their swimming with their head and back out 

 of the water, but they are oftenest discovered lying at the 

 bottom, a fathom or more deep. If a turtle perceives he is 

 discovered, he starts up to make his escape, the men in the 

 boat pursuing him endeavour to keep sight of him, which 

 they often lose and recover again, by the turtle putting his 

 nose out of the water to breathe : thus they pursue him, one 

 paddling and rowing, while the other stands ready with his 

 striker. It is sometimes half an hour before he is tired, then 

 he sinks at once to the bottom, which gives them an oppor- 



