The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1888-08-09

then, raising himself ON the tips of his
toes, he struggled along for few
yards, when all at once his strength
gave out and down he came kerplunk.
Whenever a grasshopper would light
within reach of his head, out would go
his beak, and before the hopper knew
what hit him it would be his meat.
But this amt catching turtles. is it?''
He placed one of the pea-like bullets
in the little rifles breech, and laying
the gun to his shoulder sighted along
its octagonal barrel. Instead of point
ing toward the snapper the guns muz-
zle bore on a floating object about the
size of a mans thumb, which was
rapidly approaching us from above.
With the report of the gun the object
disappeared, and then, grasping the
scoop, Henry leaned eagerly over the
skiff's side and looked down into the
water. In less than minute the cur
rent brought with it the body of a
second turtle, smaller than the first,
which Henry dexterously scooped in as
it was being half borne by the current
and half propelled by its own dying ex-
ertions down the stream. The bullet
had crushed it's skull while it was
swimming, as is the fashion of many
inland turtles, with nothing but the tip
of its head above water. AS the eyes
and nostrils of this creature are placed
upon the extreme end of its proboscis,
and as nothing else was visible, only
chance or the trained eye of woods
man could have enabled the hunter to
see it and shoot it before the turtle had
scented danger and dived.
''Now, then, for the duck-eater. /
want to take him alive if l can, as
there is not much market for dead
turtles, the dealers not caring to take
the risk of having stock spoil On their
hands when it can be kept in tank for
six months, at almost no expense, if
alive. The only way to get him is to
catch him in trap, or a line, or to
scoop him out. As he has enough to
eat there for week the first two plans
will hardly work, and while in such
deep water as this the scoop is danger
GUS. will try it.''
Then with an oar Henry turned up
the black earth along the rivers bank,
sending it in cloud down the current
and completely hiding the turtle under
its dark mantle.
Don't be afraid; he is not lost, as l
have his bearings. You see, when the
water was clear he could see every mo-
tion / made, and had l tried to scoop
him out then he would be off before you
could say 'bo! but now
Henry leaped out of the skiff and
into the cold water which washed his
thighs. With the long handle held
! firmly in both hands, he raked the bar
with the teeth of the scoop, until they
touched something which his practiced
touch told him was the game. With a
sudden shoot forward he lifted the OBJ
struction, and then, putting all his
strength into his arms, he cast it from
the scoops teeth, sending it in a clean
flight of dozen feet out of the water,
high and dry, on the sandy shore. 1t
was the snapper, with its jaws tightly
closed on the wing of the dead duck.
When taken aboard and thrown on
the bottom of the boat with several of
its congeners, it made no effort to es-
cape or to finish its breakfast, but re-
mained quiet with the wing in its
mouth and it's sharp little eyes staring.
The jaws of the steel traps were now
sprung and fixed in that position, and
after being fastened to one end of a
ten-foot length of quarter-inch hemp
rope, the other end of which was fixed
to peg driven deeply in the river
bank, the traps were baited with min.
nows and sunk in likely looking holes
among the submerged willows. The
fish hooks were baited in the same
manner, and their lines tied to the
stout willow branches, after which the
boat was secured, and, with nothing
but the scoop, Henry set off on tramp
up the creek.
There are two or three ponds higher
up here,n said he, (which are quie
and shallow and muddy. They art
always full of turtle, and l shall carry
at least two back to the boat with me
although you might 60 up there alone
every day in the year and never see ;
shell. The way | get them is by wad
ing around in the water, and whenevel
| strike any thing hard with my boot
or the scoop push the fork under i
and lift it ashore, just as l dit
down at the river. Sometimes tn,
hard thing is fiat stone, bu
oftener than you might think it i
a turtle. Further down the river
nearer its mouth, Ihave five hogshead
sunk in the water, with log plantet
in the shore over each hogshead. Tn
turtles soon find the logs, and sit OF
them summing themselves until l com
near. when every man of them drol
into the water. Instead of droppin,
into the river, as they think. they drop