36 A NATURALIST ON DESERT ISLANDS. 



over a hundred pounds, they have not the faintest 

 idea whether it may be only two years old or as much 

 as twenty * ; nor more had the " laird." 



We have already referred to the acute sense of direction, 

 which the young turtle exhibits when first hatched, a 

 degree of acuteness which, after all, is not so very much 

 greater than that of young ducks or other water-birds 

 in finding their way to any water ; but it would appear 

 that in the adult turtle this sense may assume proportions 

 which are very much more wonderful. Most of the turtles, 

 for example, which the Cayman fishermen catch, are taken 

 off the Mosquito Coast, which lies three hundred miles to 

 the south of their islands. Now turtles which have been 

 caught there and taken to the Caymans to be kraaled (or 

 put into the turtle-ponds) have escaped from time to time 

 after their arrival, and have been subsequently found again 

 off the Mosquito coast. It has, indeed, been asserted by 

 old turthng hands that they have been retaken among 

 the very self same rocks from which they were originally 

 netted. It is impossible that any mistake could be made 

 in regard to their having been caught before, for every 

 turtle caught is branded with the private mark of the 

 vessel capturing it. On this passage of three hundred 

 miles there is no favourable drift to set them on their 

 course ; indeed, during these passages, if the turtles 

 swam on or near the surface they would not only have 

 a cross wind, in the shape of the prevailing Trades, but 

 would have a cross current to deal with, viz., the Guff 

 Stream drift, just beginning to " draw " through the 

 Yucatan Straits, which would set them constant fy west- 

 wards off their almost due southerly course. Here, then, 

 we apparently have a " homing " instinct possessed by 

 the turtle which is on an equality with that of the 

 swallow, pigeon or other birds, and which seems to us to 

 be quite remarkable. 



The hawksbill turtle, as we have aheady hinted, also 

 comes ashore at Swan Island. They are much rarer than 



* A very old turtle is generally covered with barn,acles. 



