TURTLE CATCHING. 179 



unmerciful waves generally throw them back again upon the 

 shore. Here they are attacked by great sea-birds, storks and 

 herons, against which, in spite of their smallness, they make 

 feeble efforts of defence, or by still more powerful beasts of 

 prey; and thus the greater part of the unfortunate brood is 

 destroyed at its very first entrance into life ; while those which 

 reach the sea, are generally devoured by sharks and other sharp- 

 toothed fishes. It is therefore not in vain that the turtle lays 

 four or five hundred eggs in the course of a single summer, for 

 were she less fruitful, the race would long since have been ex- 

 tinguished. 



I need hardly mention, that the flesh of the green turtle is 

 everywhere esteemed as a first-rate delicacy. The king of the 

 Manga Eeva Islands in the South Sea keeps them in a pen for 

 the wants of his table ; and the London alderman is said to 

 know no greater enjoyment than swallowing a basin of turtle- 

 soup. Hence it is no wonder that the mariner, tired of salt-beef 

 and dried peas, persecutes them on all the coasts of the tropical 

 seas, wherever solitude, a flat beach, and a favourable season 

 promise to reward his trouble. 



Bernardin de St. Pierre gives us the following picturesque 

 description of turtle-catching on Ascension Island; — "Fire- 

 wood, a kettle, and the great boat-sail were landed, and the 

 sailors lay down to sleep, as the turtles do not emerge from the 

 sea before night-fall. The moon rose above the horizon and 

 illumined the solitude, but her light, which adds new charms to 

 a friendly prospect, rendered this desolate scene more dreary 

 still. We were at the foot of a black hillock, on whose summit 

 mariners had planted a great cross. Before us lay the plain, 

 covered with innumerable blocks of black lava, whose crests, 

 whitened by the drippings of the sea-birds, glistened in the 

 moonbeam. These pallid heads on dark bodies, some of which 

 were upright, and others reclined, appeared to us like phantoms 

 hovering over tombs. The greatest stillness reigned over this 

 desolate earth, interrupted only from time to time by the break- 

 ing of a wave, or the shriek of a sea-bird. We went to the 

 great bay to await the arrival of the turtles, and there we lay 

 flat upon the sand in the deepest silence, as the least noise 

 frightens the turtles, and causes them to withdraw. At last we 



