Giant Fish of Florida 
Though its reputation is deservedly less than that of its green 
relative, the loggerhead nevertheless makes excellent soup, but 
you have to dress your own turtle if you want to utilise it in 
this way. The first thing is to kill it, and killing a turtle is 
easier to write than to do. Its head must be cut off at any 
cost, and the particular cost to avoid is having your fingers 
nipped off. Always bear in mind that the shell is a very 
important part of the skeleton ; the ribs and neck are firmly 
joined to it. The big bones fore and aft, as well as the 
shoulder blades and pelvis, are separate ; otherwise all the 
solid parts and the shell are one. I am not desiring to discourse 
on the anatomy of the turtle, but this unity with the shell is 
worth remembering by any one attempting to remove the head. 
To get at the turtle’s best meat you have to cut round the 
margin of the under plates and lift up the lid. Even then, 
unless you have some experience of the composition of the 
animal, it is by no means easy to be sure that you have struck 
the liver, and not some other part that you do not want. A 
turtle is one of those creatures that do not seem nearly dead 
when you have killed them. When the turtles are pairing, by 
the way, nothing will drive them from each other's company, 
and there can under the circumstances be no possible sport or 
advantage in killing them, particularly as the male is then unfit 
for food. 
Such are some of the fruits of harpooning. It will be found 
a pleasant change, exercising a new combination of the senses 
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