The Dickinson press., 1889-06-08
THEY GET INTO THE SOUP.
FESTIVE TURTLES FROM THE BURN
ING SANDS OF FLORIDA.

Ahey are turned upon Inelr Backs and
Freishted to the Tureen-some Of Them
Weigh as Much as 600 I'ounds-The
Leather Backs Not Fit To Eat.
OF all the strange sights and sounds which
engage the northern visitors attention while
sojourning upon the ISOLATED little island of
Key West, Fla, none arouse his or her curl
osity more than the sponge auction and the
turtle crawls. Key West. though a small
island Some seven or eight miles in extent and
four or five in width, and containing a Inpu
lation of upward of lG,WW inhabitants, is the
market and business center for all the extent
Of country lying between Cape Sable and
indian river. or even farther, this by reason
Of its connection with New York by means
of the Mallory line steamers. running between
that port and Galveston. Tex. The principal
exports of Key West, or Keyo Hueso. liter
ally bone key" its ancient name. are, tt.
place them in their order of Importance, first,
cigars, second, sponges; third. turtles; fourth.
early garden truck.
ONLY A TURTLE BLOWN"
1t is, however, to but one Of these indus.
tries that | wish to draw your attention,
namely turtling There are but two varie-
ties of this animal which nave any value Us
all article OF commerce, one of which is the
hawkbill, so called on account of its strong
hooked mandibles. which resemble those of
its nalnesake, the hawk. This creature is
valued for the beauty and transparency of
its external covering, which all readily recog.
nize under tho name of tortoise she'll. The
other variety enumerated as being valuable
to commerce is the sea turtle, which, when
full grown, reaches the circumference of a
large clothes basket in size and weighs 500
pounds OF upward. There are three stages of
this creatures existence at which its value is
fixed. They are chicken, green II old.
AS might he surmised, it is most valuable
when at the chicken stage, after this green or
middle age is most desirable, and even when
it has reached the limit of this ago and be-
comes classified us old it still retains a high
commercial value, as one of an inquiring
turn Of mind may easily discover by calling
for u plate of soup made from this dclectable
creature at Delmonico's, of New York, or
Young's. of Boston. While strolling about
the wllurves ut the northern end of the island
the uninitiated visitor is startled by hearing
deep an:l ghostly groans proceeding appar-
entity from beneath the planks ut his feet.
Visions of foul murders and cold corpses star.
ing at him from the inky darkness below in
stantly crowd themselves before his distorted
imagination. Upon applying to n ~bystander
for information, however, this worthy will
probably respond, if a turtler or native, "tur-
tie biowin'."
Ii the visitor cares to further cultivate the
acquaintance of said native or enlist his SYM
pathies by means Of a cigar or glass Of Ar.
gucdentte he may DO escorted by means of a
trapdoor and ladder to q raft beneath the
wharf, where, after his eyes have become &C.
customed to the gloom, he may descry these
monsters of the deep in all their glory, and
hear again those soul narrowing groans
which have no terrors for him now. This is
the turtle crawl, where these denizens of the
gulf are confined until the time arrives to
ship them to a northern market. This is done
10y simply tying their limbs or fippers, plac-
ing them upon their backs and shipping them
US they aro-alive.
y crawl, or krawl, derived from tho Dutch
and probably the origin of the western word
corral, consists of in this case simply a pen
made OF slender poles of some tough wood
driven firmly in the mud and placed some
four inches apart. These of the great wharf
crawl are spiked on to huge beams at tho up
per end, thus p%recluding all possibility of es-
cape.
LAYING THEIR EGGS IN THE SAM
The season for capturing turtles is mostly
i'll May and June, when these animals seek
the shores of the sand keysin Card and Barnes
sounds on the southeast coast for the purpose
Of 'lepositing their eggs. While engaged in
this operation nothing short Of death will
disturb them or drive them from their pur-
pose. Accordingly upon bright moonlight
nights the turtlers repair to the turtle haunted
beaches. armed only with long poles or oars.
When u turtle is espied they do not disturb
her, but strive to get between her and the
water. which she returns to as soon as the
eggs are laid and buried in the sand. This
she accolnplishes by means of her broad flip
peers beating down the sand Us hard and
smooth as might u mason with his trowel, the
Eggs are left to incubate by action of the SUMS
rays, which generally occupies from twelve
tofourteen days. AS the mother turtle comes
toward them. seemingly blind to everything
but her duty, the men place. their levers be-
meath her, and ny a quick aud uexterous twist
turn her upon her back in an instant. Hav
ING done this the then pay no further atten.
ton to her, but go in search of other victims.
Here she will lie until called for by the boats
crew in tho morning. Nothing can accom-
plish her release but the incoming tide, and
the men are careful to place her beyond the
reach OF this. The number of turtles which
pair OF expert men will sometimes turn over
i'll O single night is almos Incredible.
The chicken and green varieties of this
turtle cannot of course be captured in this
way, but are speared or harpooned while
sleeping upon the water. The spear used for
this purpose is so small tined as to pierce the
Shell and retain q firm hold and vet not in.
jure the animal materially The eggs of this
spcrit" are regarded by the ~turtlers Us the
gle:.s,, OF all delicacies. but our experience
Would lead us to warn all epicures against
them unless in event of a last resort he
who has served a long apprenticeship in learn.
ing all the mysteries Of salt horse or reyeled
in the delights Of salt pig might perhaps
relish them, but to all others we would saw.
give them a wide berth. The vessels engaged
III this business are small twelve to fifteen
ton schooners. and commonly hire their crews
on half shares, similar to our cod or mackerel
fishermen. Ut other species of turtle inhabit-
ing tho Gulf of Mexico and adjacent shores.
there are four Of these but one inhabits the
water. the rest being land animals exclu.
sively. The Mexican leather back is the am
phibious species. and is utterly worthless for
all purposes save those of natural history
These animals sometimes attain an enormous
size and are covered by a thick flexible shell,
capable of turning anything but q rifle ball.
They are also the most vicious and ugly tenn
pered creatures the writer has ever seen, their
powerful jaws being capable Of grinding a
broom handle or oar into splinters in a mo-
n:ent Or the remaining three varieties, but
one is useful for food. THIS is the gopha or
land tortoise, and is most excellent eating.
The home of this animal is in the sandy nine
barrens of Georgia aud Florida, where thew
burrow into the soil in q manner similar to
that of the northumberland Globe.
This appears in the Lewiston (Mc., Journal.
"Two Lisbon women used to look so much
alike that they fooled their own children.
The babies often cried for the wrong mother