THE GREEN TURTLE, AND THE POSSIBILITIES OF ITS PROTECTION AND 
CONSEQUENT INCREASE ON THE FLORIDA COAST. 
By RALPH M. MUNROE. 
Early travelers on the tropical coasts of America made much mention of the abun- 
dance of turtles which were to be seen in the waters at all times and on the beaches 
in the spring season engaged in laying their eggs. How many of these belonged to the 
species Clielonia mydas is mere conjecture, for, aside from the tables of the rich and 
the cabins of the mariner, to the latter of which it often came as a Godsend in times 
of hunger and scurvy, it was comparatively unknown, and as other species were edible 
and somewhat similar in appearance, the old chroniclers put them all under the one 
head of turtle. As a matter of fact, the loggerhead ( Thalassochelys caretta ), common 
now on our coast, when not oversized and when properly butchered and cooked, is not 
to be despised by a man even not hungry, and so also the hawksbill ( Eretmoclielys 
inibricata ), from which comes the tortoise shell of commerce. 
With the advent of steam vessels, penetrating as they do the labyrinths of the 
West Indian islands and adjacent coasts, enabling the perishable tropical products to 
be transported in safety, the green turtle has become a more common food and less of 
a luxury in our seaboard cities, and, as most people take kindly to it, the demand has 
increased with the usual result in connection with natural products, a growing scarcity 
and higher prices. Being, as it is, a nutritious delicacy, it is quite time that its habits, 
reproduction, and methods of capture should be looked into before its enforced classi- 
fication with the extinct reptiles, even if this should be an event far distant; and it 
might be well worth our time and attention to reduce, by cultivation and protection, 
the present rather prohibitive price of a valuable food. 
As is the case with very much of marine life, but little is known as to the habits 
of the green turtle. Its food is a marine grass growing on the bottoms of lagoons and 
bays more or less shallow. It mates on the Florida coast in the month of May, or 
thereabouts, the females with eggs, except in rare cases, at once disappearing from 
these waters, and, uutil recently, going no one knew where, but it may now be asserted 
that their hatching-grounds are the beaches of various isolated islands off Central 
America or the Bahama banks. How this migration is accomplished across the Gulf 
Stream for hundreds of miles is past comprehension. As high as four hatches of eggs, 
containing from 130 to 180 each, are believed to be laid by one female during the 
months of June, July, and August, and the process is not repeated until an interval 
of one or two years has elapsed. Incubation takes from ten to twelve weeks. We 
have little information as to where the young that escape the gulls and other birds on 
the beach, the fish and sharks, pass their time on entering the water again like their 
F.C.B.1897— 18 273 
