LETTERS FROM ALABAMA. 
97 
allow ample opportunity for the most careful aim. 
When out of water, they will sit for hours without 
moving, the foreparts raised, looking diagonally 
upwards, yet ready to drop on the slightest alarm 
into the water below. At the first crack of the rifle 
they disappear ; every one has dropped silently 
down, not with a struggle and a splash, but so 
stilly, that you look round and wonder what 
magical art has made the host suddenly inAusible. 
TURTLES JN A SWAMP. 
I saw one shot and mortallj wounded. It fell 
over on its hack and rolled into the water^- but 
could only feebly struggle^ and had no power to 
turUj or to direct its movements so as to swim to 
the bottom. Hence with some difficulty it was 
dragged to shore. It was^ as I had supposed, a 
