Giant Fish of Florida 
season that so many turtles are procured for the market, and 
many a loggerhead finds its way into the real green turtle soup. 
In their wanderings below the surface they not infrequently 
get foul of a line, but, so hard is their skin, that the hook 
seldom penetrates. Some idea of the toughness of the skin 
may be formed when it is mentioned that even the strongest 
men can with difficulty pierce it with a gaff. When they chance 
to foul a line they are generally played for about half an hour, 
after which they show once and then go free. On one occasion 
the harpooner of the party slowly and cautiously approached a 
basking loggerhead, his right arm poised, his weapon ready to 
strike. Then, slowly, it was lowered; the turtle must have 
been dead at least a week. Yells of laughter greeted his dis- 
covery, for the decaying reptile had drifted down the whole 
line of boats, reaching him the last, and had even deceived one 
or two of their inmates into fetching out their gaffs. 
