Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1881-05-14
TURTLES FROM DRY TORTUGAs.
Methods of Catching them-Fight
Between Turtles and Sharks-Some
Monsters.

There's good deal of sport in turtle
turning, says one who has been in the
business for some years. The keys be-
tween Cape Florida and Key West, and
Mar Keys, and Loegerhead to the
southland and west ard, are the best
places, and the finest fishing grounds In
the country. Moonlight nights are the
best time, and all hands go ashore and
divide around the beach. Most of the
keys, or, in fact, all of them, are covered
with mau-groves and bay cedars that
come down to about forty feet of the
water, and right in their shade the men
would lie in couples, and quarter of
mile along two mere, and so on around
the key. Every fifteen minutes or so
one of the men walks down to the water
and rms along the beach close to it, so
as to back the turtle off. If he sees the
tracks he gives a whistle and the other
hand comes down on run, and they
both follow up the track, generally find
ing the turtle digging nest. The min
ute it sees you it whirls around and
starts for the water, and you've got to
keep out of the way of its mouth if it is
loggerhead. I've seen n mans nose
broken by knock from a flipper, but if
q man understands his business he can
tip turtle. no matter how big it is
and, on the other hand, I've seen four
men trying to tip one over, but it
knocked one down after they got it on
the edge of the shell, and filed the
mouth and eyes of the rest with sand,
and then walked away into the Gulf.
When they get a turtle they leave it,
and keep up the walking al night. I've
caught thirty in one night in this way
with about seven men to help, and it
gave us all we wanted to do. The next
morning the fiippers are slit and tied,
and they ere dragged aboard the boats
or put in crawls, just rs it happens.
You wouldn't think turtles were cum
ming creatures, but they are, and they
can smell man like deer. I've seen
one come up in front of me when was
hid in the bush, and take three or four
shifts and haul off shore again and
when they have laid their eggs-some-
times 200 or more-they smooth over
the spot to make it look like the rest of
the beach, and instead of going straight
back to the water, they go up or down
dig another nest or two, and then slide
off hundred yards from where they
come up. A green hand would hunt all
day and not find the nest.
The eggs are of no use. The more
you cook them the rawer they get. The
young eggs taken out of the turtle are
dried in the sun, and make a good living
for starving man. The Conchs eat
them, and cormorants rs well, but l
never saw a Northern man that
could go turtle eggs as steady diet.
We had q new cook one cruise, and
some of the men, wanting to play joke
on him, gave him lot of loggerhead
eggs and told him to make a custard.
He cooked them fourteen hours, and the
eggs hadn't turned hair. You can't
cook them. The loggerheads are larger,
coarser, and worth good third less
than the green turtles, and they are like
bulldogs-take q piece right out of
boat. Green turtles will run from a
shark, but some of the old bull logger
heads viii fight until they can't move.
We saw fight between a couple one
day. The shark would make rushes at
it, miss its fippers, and slide way over
on its back, and the loggerhead would
get hold of the sharks fin, and such
splashing you never saw, but by the
time we got alongside the turtle was
played out, and three of its fiippers
bitten off short. We took possession,
and it lived, for I saw it year after
ward, and it could move along enough
to pick up living.