OCEAN FISH AKD OCEAN FISHING 87 



silence we approached, and ceasing to row, slowly 

 sculled the boat up to the unsuspecting victim. 



Habet ! And the harpoon, describing a para- 

 bola in its flight, was buried deep through the soft 

 shell into the turtle's vitals. Asleep ? Not a bit 

 of it. Off it went like a steam-launch, with the 

 haft of the harpoon sticking out of its back like 

 a mast. But only for a short distance ; the 

 wound was too deep, and the turtle succumbed 

 at the bottom of the boat, but not before it had, 

 with its sharp-edged beak, nearly severed a finger 

 of one of us who had incautiously poked it about 

 the head. It was, as we subsequently found, 

 a splendid female full of eggs, and weighed 

 about 5 cwt., just the proper size for table 

 use, the monsters of 7 or 8 cwt. being rather 

 coarse. 



For a wonder the ship's cook — nautically the 

 " doctor'' — was a real artist, and not some broken- 

 down A.B., or negro, whose only recommendation 

 was that, being black, the dirt on his person was 

 undiscernible. 



Our " doctor " was no sailor. He was a land- 

 lubber, but could just manage to take his station 

 at the fore-sheet, when the ship went about and 

 let go as the stentorian order, " tacks and sheets," 

 rang over the decks — a station hallowed by the 



