hamas, is by striking them with a sharp iron peg or spear-head of two inches long, set in a socket at the end of a staff twelve feet long. Two men set out on this employment in a light canoe, one to paddle noiselessly in the stern, while the other stands watchful in the bow, ready to strike. As soon as a Turtle is perceived, either swimming at the surface with the back exposed, or else crawling at the bottom in shoal water among the thick sea grass, the spear is darted at it. The sharp point enters the shell, and pierces the body, but is dislodged from the staff in the act; a slender line, however, fastened to the peg, is in the hand of the spearman, and though the Turtle speeds away, the canoe is enabled to keep up with him; his strength is soon spent, and he is hauled to the surface, and lifted into the boat.
In some of the isles of the Pacific, where the natives are almost as much at home in the sea as the Turtles themselves, a peculiarly dexterous method of capturing these animals is adopted. 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.
Mr. Darwin, in his very interesting Journal, describes a method of Turtle-catching not very
