THE LIVING WORLD. 
223 
flipper, as with a large ladle, until it has accumulated behind her, when sup¬ 
porting herself with her head and fore part 011 the ground fronting her body, 
she with a spring from each flipper sends the sand around her, scattering it to 
the distance of several feet. I11 this manner the hole is dug to the depth of 
eighteen inches, or sometimes more than two feet. This labor I have seen per- 
. formed in the . short period of nine minutes. The eggs are then dropped one by 
one, and disposed in regular layers, to the number of a hundred and fifty, or 
sometimes nearly two hundred. The whole time spent in this part of the opera¬ 
tion may be about twenty minutes. She now scrapes the loose sand back over 
the eggs, and so levels and smooths the surface that few persons on seeing the 
spot could imagine anything had been done to it. This accomplished to her 
mind, she retreats to the water with all possible dispatch, leaving the hatching 
of the eggs to the heat of the sand. When a turtle, a loggerhead for example, 
is in the act of dropping her eggs, she will not move although one should go 
up to her, or even seat himself on her back, for it seems that at this moment 
she finds it necessary to proceed at all events, and is unable to intermit her 
labor. The moment it is finished, however, off she starts; nor would it then be 
possible for one, unless he were as strong as a Hercules, to turn her over and 
secure her. 
“ To upset a turtle on the shore, one is obliged to fall on his knees, and, 
placing his shoulder behind her forearm, gradually raise her up by pushing 
with great force, and then with a jerk throw her over. Sometimes it requires 
the united strength of several men to accomplish this; and if the turtle should 
be of very great size, as often happens on that coast, even handspikes are em¬ 
ployed. Some turtlers are so daring as to swim up to them while lying asleep 
on the surface of the water, and turn them over in their own element, when, 
however, a boat must be at hand to enable them to secure their prize. Few 
turtles can bite beyond the reach of their forelegs, and few, when once turned 
over, can without assistance regain their natural position; but notwithstanding 
this, their flippers are generally secured by ropes, so as to render their escape 
impossible. 
“The food of the green turtle consists chiefly of marine plants, more espe¬ 
cially the grasswrack (Zostera marina ), which they cut near the roots to procure 
the most tender and succulent parts. Their feeding grounds, as I have elsewhere 
said, are easily discovered by floating masses of these plants on the flats, or 
along the shores to which they resort. The hawk-billed species feeds on sea¬ 
weeds, crabs, various kinds of shell-fish, and fishes; the loggerhead mostly on 
the fish of conch-shells of large size, which they are enabled, by means of their 
powerful beak, to crush to pieces with apparently as much ease as a man cracks 
a walnut. One which was brought 011 board the Marion, and placed near the 
fluke of one of her anchors, made a deep indentation in that hammered piece 
of iron that quite surprised me. The trunk turtle feeds on mollusca, fish, Crus¬ 
tacea, sea urchins, and various marine plants. 
“ All the species move through the water with surprising speed; but the 
green and hawk-billed in particular remind you, by their celerity and the ease 
of their motions, of the progress of a bird in the air. It is therefore no easy 
matter to strike one with a spear, and yet this is often done by an accom¬ 
plished turtler. 
“ Turtles such as I have spoken of are caught m various ways on the coasts 
