Omaha daily bee., 1883-05-10

rcd not. Then she picks Gu q place
and c,mmences to dig with her hind
feet, until a hole about three feet deep
Ia dug, and into this the eggs are drop.
ped sometimes a hundred, more or
less. When she's done she covers 1t
up, and instead OF going right back
and there you sec tho cunniu' O. the
brutes che crawles along the edge of
the bush a ways, and then strikes for
the water, perhaps two hundred feet
from where she came up; 80 all ye
know when you find tracks is that the
nest IL some where between 'em, aud a
green hand Is like to make a still hunt
for 1t.
Sometimes as many as q dozen are
turned In q night, and sometimes nary
one. They like bright moonlight
nights, tn ugh. The next morning
we gilt 'em iato the dingy, and then
rig q block and tackle and git en-
aboard the smack aud run fer Key
West. Most skippers that make any
business e turtlin' have crawls on the
hats on the northwest side of the key.
Ora wls2 Wall, crawls's a place where
turtles can't crawl out. Nothin' but
a fenced In place In four or five five
feet If water, and into this oil the
turtles are put 'to bS kept till called
for as Capt. Kidd said when he
buried the pot o gold. On these
rawls, or those of the Conches, we
call when we work up along, The
turtles arc taken out and slowed on
their backs and dashed with water,
and live for any time.
"Whst orc the Corche,2 Wall,
they're G part of the population of
Key West Twin In o part called
Conohtown, and supposed to live on
conches. Bat l never geo n eat one,
and 1 reckon nothin' but groupers
would tackle 'em. The ConcheD have
a curious way of catchin' turtles with
a peg. Spearin' 70 might cell it, but
the spear is a peg, lookin' jsat like
about two inches off the end Of athree
sided file. That ere Is made fsst to a
long grouper line about as big as our
cod line, and made to fit into a long
pole. With this rig they scull over
the reef with q dingy, and when they
see a turtle asleep on the bottom or
lying on the top they let him have 1t.
You'd think such o plug would pull
out, but 1t don't; suction keeps 1t In,
and a big loggerhead will pull q boat a
couple O. mile afore they get 1t along
side. Then, agip, 1t don't hurt the
o%ritter, only sticks In the shell and can
be worked right out, which a barbed
spear couldn't.
There's another turtle they git on
the reef-the hswksbill; they're fine
eatin', but the shell Ia the most valu.
able, being made into combs aud the
like. On the South American ooas'
they take the shell off by %roastin' snd
lettin' the critter go to grow another.
Did ye ever see q Gallapas turtle
No. Well, there's a terrspin for you
Land turtles, four feet long and three
feet high, that tote along a man, Oh
three of en-, juat like a horse.
landed on the Islands Ia 81 anc
brought away half O dozon Of EN-
The whole island is marked with theil
tracks leadin' from the water up int
the cones. They're the biggest lant
turtles a Twin, but there amt mucl
call for EN- except for curiosities. To,
biggest sea turtle to-day 10 the leathe
turtle, sometimes weighin' two thou
sand pounds. The back is made n
,, of n piece, havin' 70 scales like III
othors. There's a big one In Ne,
London they cay. The owner gave
4 red eyes and ntutfed It all out Of shape
o and shows 1t every year as the gres
;, sea monster, and actually don't kno'
L himself what he's shown"
Tae Galapagos turtle mentioned b
the skipper Is from gigantic stool
" Several years ago some workmen wei
o making excavations In lower Iudl'
when they came on to what was ev
n IDENTIFY q house; at least such the na
q tiveS considered IL. 1t was CAREFUL
70 unesrthed, and turned out to be tt
shell Of an enormous turtle that live
% during the tertiary period. 1t wt
y fourteen feet long aud nine feet hlgl
i and competent natursltsts exprease
the opinion tina. when alive 1t mu'
D have been twenty five feet long, !
% was a land tortoise, and crawled abor
y like our wood tortoisss Of to day, NAL
Ing footprints as large az those of a
1 elephant. In the western oountr
known as the Bad Lands hundreds
fossil turtles have been found, the.
q INTERIOR filed with solid rock, ono
9 the sand or muddy lake or sea bed l
which they lived.
Q On one Of tie government exped
y tions a turtle, perhaps thirty feet !
length, was found, which, curiousl
k enough, had rudimentary charactoriI
p tics, showing 1t to be a missing linl
}, rs il we're, connecting other forms. J
war a forefather of the great lsatht
turtle of to-day. Iss length fror
4 fiippsr to hipper was over ssventee
a feet, making it the largest turtle "
g known.