Sea turtle

“ Sea Turtles have flat shells between which the flipper-like feet and huge head cannot be retracted. There are no nails or separate toes, and the fore feet are much the larger. The Green Turtle (Chelone midas) is much esteemed as food, with its eggs. It lives in or near the Gulf Stream, feeds on the roots of eelgrass, comes ashore at night, during May, and lays nearly one hundred eggs, which hatch in six weeks; the laying is usually repeated several times every two weeks, near the first nest. ”

“ Two or three men go out in a canoe in smooth water, when the Turtles delight to sleep on the surface, basking in the sun. No sooner is one discovered, than the ready diver plunges into the sea, and coming up silently behind the animal, suddenly seizes the hinder edge of the carapace before it awakes, and pressing down the posterior part of the body in the water, obliges the fore parts to remain upright. Thus the terrified Turtle, now thoroughly awakened, is prevented from diving until the canoe coming up, the bold fisherman and his prey are both taken on board. ”

“ OF TURTLE By popular consent the rash act of the daring man who first devoured an oyster has been greatly extolled, but what meed of praise should be awarded to that dim and distant discoverer who first essayed to break into and devour the flesh of the armour-clad tortoise or turtle? All unarmed as he doubtless must have been, except for spear of chipped flint or charred stick, the mere entry within the domus of the reptile, even by way of the leathery neck or flank, must have been no easy feat. ”

“ These turtles are often carried by storm far north of their customary habitat, which is in the warmer waters of the southeastern coast. The Leatherback, or Trunk Turtle, is the largest of the sea turtles, sometimes reaching a weight of half a ton. It is not found in abundance. The Loggerhead Turtle has a very large head. Its eggs are buried in the sand about May or June and the young turtles hatch out in about two months' time. The Green Turtle often strays into northern waters. The flesh of this turtle is prized by epicures. ”

“ To an Englishman a turtle is a sea-monster, that for a brief space lies on his back and fights the air with his useless paddles in the bow-window of a provision-shop, bound eventually to Guildhall, there to feed Gog and Magog, or his worshippers, known as aldermen. For him a land-testudinate is a tortoise. When his poets and romancers speak of turtles, again, they commonly mean turtle-doves. ”

“ The principal difference between tortoise and turtle is the shape of the paws, which in the land varieties are always armed with claws, and have a strong likeness to the legs of a lizard. In the turtles these clawed feet become flippers, almost fins, wonderfully adapted for swimming purposes, but rendering the turtle when on land more helpless and clumsy in his locomotion than even a seal. ”

“ By daybreak next morning two boats' crews, under Rudderhead and Derval, taking with them handspikes or capstan bars, pulled in shore to search for turtle. They beached the boats at a place where a number of large turtle were seen, well up on the shore, near some dense brushwood, out of which black cocks flew from time to time, and near which some great seals lay basking in the sun. ”

“ The turtle generally crawls up about ten rods from the sea-shore on the soft beach-sand, making a large track with its flippers, and digging a hole in the sand about two feet deep, lays forty eggs, and returns to the sea again the same night. ”

“ Last of all the turtle modestly advanced, tendering his broad shell as the basis of the earth now about to be formed. The beasts then made a trial of his strength to bear, heaping themselves on his back; and finding their united pressure unable to sink him below the surface, adjudged to him the honour of supporting the world.
A foundation being thus provided, the next subject of deliberation was, how to procure earth. Several of the most expert divers plunged to the bottom of the sea, and came up dead ”

“ There are several kinds of turtles, or sea tortoises, but we account the green turtle the best meat. When they want to lay their eggs, they go on shore in some sandy bay, where they make a hole in the sand with their fins, two feet and a half deep, in which one turtle will deposit from eighty to ninety eggs, which they cover over with the sand, leaving them to hatch by the heat of the sun. They lay in this manner two or three times every year, and go immediately off to sea, leaving their young when hatched to shift for themselves ”

“ Numbers of splendid turtles often came ashore to deposit their eggs in the sand, and their delicious flesh afforded us many a sumptuous meal. When more than one of these creatures appeared at a time, we used to cut off their retreat to the sea, and, turning them on their backs, fasten them to a stake driven in close by the water's edge, by a cord passed through a hole in their shell. We thus had fresh turtle continually within our reach ”

“ Its flesh is not so delicate as that of the sea (or green) turtle, which is also very numerous among these islands, but the shell of the latter is of little value. The turtle-catchers lie in wait for them when they come on shore, and take an opportunity of turning them on their backs, when they cannot rise again. They sometimes reach the enormous weight of eight hundred pounds. The female lays her eggs, hundreds at a time, on the sea shore ”

“ They are generally very fat and delicious, so that the New Hollanders [Pg 108] are extremely fond of them, and the turtle season, being an important part of the year, is looked forward to with pleasure. The green turtles, which are a much larger animal, found only by the sea-side, are taken when crawling on the beach. If they by accident get upon their backs, they are unable to right themselves, and perish miserably, so that nothing more is necessary to secure them, than to place them in that posture, and they may be taken away and devoured at leisure. ”

“ The Logger-head and the Trunk Turtles are the least cautious in choosing the places in which to deposit their eggs, whereas the two other species select the wildest and most secluded spots. The Green Turtle resorts either to the shores of the Main, between Cape Sable and Cape Florida, or enters Indian, Halifax, and other large rivers or inlets, from which it makes its retreat as speedily as possible, and betakes itself to the open sea. Great numbers, however, are killed by the turtlers and Indians, as well as by various species of carnivorous animals, as Cougars, Lynxes, Bears, and Wolves. ”

“ Even in his native waters the turtle is not of a lighthearted kind, for his gestures are solemn and his demeanor circumspect. His spirits never rise to the frolicking point. In captivity the creature assumes a sepulchral deliberation in manner, and his natural sobriety deepens at times into positive dejection. ”

“ Taking up another group of great sea animals; no chapter in the story of destruction is quite so harrowing as that of the sea turtles of the southern coasts and islands of the United States—the more so because it is not only the original supply that has been cut off, but because there is not the least doubt but that the turtles can with slight expense be increased vastly beyond any numbers ever observed in purely natural environments. ”

“ In the sea it lives upon shell-fish, and such is the 134 strength of its jaws, that it is able to break stones; when on shore, it feeds upon herbage. The female turtle lays eggs like those of birds, one hundred in number; these she buries on the dry land, covers them over with earth, pats it down with her breast, and sits on them during the night. The young are hatched in the course of a year. Some persons are of opinion that they hatch their eggs by means of the eyes, by merely looking at them. The Troglodytæ have turtles with horns, [131] which resemble the branches of a lyre ”

“ "When we were little," the Mock Turtle went on, more calmly, though still sobbing a little now and then, "we went to school in the sea. The master was an old Turtle—we used to call him Tortoise—"
"Why did you call him Tortoise, if he wasn't one?" asked Alice.
"We called him Tortoise because he taught us," said the Mock Turtle angrily, "really you are very dull!" ”

“ Most people are heartless about turtles because a turtle's heart will beat for hours after he has been cut up and butchered. But the old man thought, I have such a heart too and my feet and hands are like theirs. ”

“ Should they turn and stick to the bottom of the sampan, they are carefully detached by being pushed forward with the inevitable bamboo, and started on the search again. At last they attach themselves to the supine turtle. Then the fishermen haul in the lines, against which gentle suasion the hapless Chelone struggles in172 vain. Once on board the lugger, the useful remora is detached, and is at once ready for use again.
1 But the turtle can by no means be kept on the surface until it is exhausted. The first act of a hunted turtle is to seek the depths. ”

“ Every sea-captain who sailed to the West Indies was expected to bring home a turtle on the return voyage for a feast to his expectant friends. ”

“ The common fresh-water turtles have distinct toes, which are webbed and provided with long nails. They are easy and powerful swimmers, but are very helpless on land. They feed upon all kinds of aquatic worms and insects. The tortoises, or land turtles, have short clubbed feet adapted for travelling on the ground, and stout, short claws. They feed upon roots, vegetables, fruit, and small bugs and flies. Their upper shell is more rounded than that of the water turtle. They are capable of swimming, but seldom enter the water. ”

“ When the fishermen discover the Turtles basking on the surface of the water, not daring to disturb their intended prey, by making the least noise, they slip overboard one of their Remoras, secured by the long cord, and pay out the line according to their distance. The fish soon perceives the Turtle, and hastening to it, fixes itself so firmly on the floating reptile, that the fishermen can draw both together into their boat, where there is no difficulty in detaching the fish by pushing forwards its head from behind. ”

“ Turtle are kept alive for weeks on board ship, even in the tropics, and all the care that is taken of them consists in placing pillows under their heads, as they lie on their backs on deck—so as to prevent apoplexy, I suppose—and in throwing an occasional bucket of water over them. These creatures seem to be able to do without food for a very long period. We found that we could not employ this method of keeping alive the turtle we caught, for, though we constantly poured buckets of water over them, and shaded them with matting, they could not exist on these blazing sands ”

“ There they lie in every variety of posture; some on their backs, with their white bellies uppermost, some suspended in midwater, some sculling gently along with a dreamy motion of the fins, and others quite active and wide awake,—a scene not unlike what the human city would present. Occasionally he will encounter a turtle selecting the choicest morsels, or a musk-rat resting on a tussuck. He may exercise his dexterity, if he sees fit, on the more distant and active fish, or fork the nearer into his boat, as potatoes out of a pot, or even take the sound sleepers with his hands. ”

“ The people go along the shore at night with lanterns and other lights, seeking the tracks which the turtle leaves in the sand, which they follow till they find the animal, which being tired with the exertion, sleeps so soundly as not to waken on their approach. Having found a turtle it is turned on its back, and without doing any more harm they go on to seek more, which are treated in the same manner. ”

“ The box tortoise can retire into its shell and close the under part into a groove of the upper edge, and thus form for itself an impregnable retreat; but there are varieties only partly encased by the shell, which cannot bring their heads and feet under cover.
The turtle wanders about with its house on its back as the snail does, and against its enemies it can close its doors and be emphatically “not at home.” Turtles have keen sight and hearing; they have no teeth, the jaws being simply cased in horn, like those of birds. Many of them are capable of making loud sounds. ”

“ These large turtles, which in other parts of South America are called “arraus,” or simply “tortugas,” assemble every year in large armies, from all parts of the river. Each one of these armies chooses for itself a place to breed—some sandy island, or great sand-bank. This they approach very cautiously—lying near it for some days, and reconnoitring it with only their heads above the water. They then crawl ashore at night in vast multitudes—just as the party saw them—and each turtle, with the strong crooked claws of her hind feet, digs a hole for herself in the sand. ”

“ The natives take large numbers of the former; indeed, from the month of November till February turtle forms their principal food. The green turtle are taken in the water by the blacks, who display great address in "turning" them; they are approached when asleep on the surface; the black slips gently from his canoe and disappears under water, and rising beneath the animal, by a sudden effort turns it on its back, and by a strong wrench to the fore flipper disables it from swimming. The fisherman is assisted by his companions in the canoe, and a line is secured to the turtle. ”