A SHARK'S DIGESTION. 



35 



On the same afternoon, I might add, another shark 

 seized a tarpon which I was in the act of landing, and 

 which must have weighed fully one hundred pounds or 

 more. It rushed away with the fish, and after a dogged 

 tussle of about five or ten minutes' duration, in which 

 the shark seemed to be sulking on the bottom with the 

 tarpon in its jaws, the line came back slack with about 

 five or ten pounds of the tarpon's flesh attached to my 

 hook. Strangely enough, this chimk of flesh seemed to 

 have come from the region of the tarpon's shoulders, 

 although the fish had been originally properly hooked 

 in the mouth. 



The green turtle is considered to be a strict vegetarian. 

 It is undoubtedly very fond of what is known as turtle- 

 grass {Zoster a marina), which grows in shallow water 

 near the shore, especially where there is a good deal of 

 fine silt or mud ; but I much doubt if we have any right 

 to be so certain that it never varies its menu by occasion- 

 ally indulging in a little animal diet, or if turtle-grass 

 is anything more than an item in its menu at certain times 

 of the year only. 



The " laird " informed me, for instance, that regularly 

 every spring the thimble jelly-fish (Linerges 7nercwrius) 

 drifts past the island in countless swarms, and that the 

 hawksbill turtles simply gorge themselves on them. 



The loggerhead, as compared with the green turtle, 

 lives certainly and chiefly on an animal diet ; its food 

 consisting of fish, Crustacea, various species of sponge, 

 and shell-fish, especially conchs. Its flesh is consequently 

 very nasty, and even the Ca^^man turtlers, when off the 

 Mosquito banks, will not touch it. The hawksbill turtle 

 they will, on the contrary, eat with pleasure, and its diet 

 would seem to be intermediate between that of the green 

 and loggerhead. 



No one seems to be able to tell the age of a turtle. 

 There are turtle fishers at the Caymans, for instance, who 

 have had years of experience on the banks, and yet in 

 the case of an adult cock or hen, of say something 



