The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1894-11-17
YARNS ABOUT TURTLES.
How They Were Made to Do Service
for q Schooner.

speaking about turtles" observed the
weather-beaten traveller, who had Joined
party of drummerS seated in the smok-
lng-room OF Il Pullman car, why, have
literally seen millions of them at once.
The sea for miles around as far as the eye
could reach was"
Nv here was this ?' asked an inQuisi =
tive drummer.
ear the Galapagos Islands, Off the
west coast OF South America was the
reply, and then, as the other passengers
settled back IN their seats, the weather.
beaten one spun this yarn:
GU see," he began, I'VE were on g
little schooner and were on our way from
CaiIao TO ST. Ambrose Island for load
OF guano. We'll, the wind suddenly died
out and we began to DRIFT. This state OF
AFFAIRS Kept up for several days, until one
morning we spied land ahead over the
port bow. IL was about seven miles
away, should think.
Now, you may not believe it, but we
suddenly ran into a shoaI OF big sea
turtles That were so close together you
could hardly see the water. they were
there IN millions, and tremendous 1el-
lows, too, some OF them weighing, /
should judge, more than 600 pounds.
They lay all about the schooners sides
and didn't seem TO mind US bit.
NV were out of our course and it be-
gan 10 look as II we would never get out
OF the mess we were in, Then gentle
men, conceived all idea. l told it to the
carpenter, and he thought it was great,
too And this is how ii worked
wv e-that is, the carpenter and my
self-Stepped over the vessels side and
let ourselves down on the back OF a great
turtle as gently as we could. Did he
mind II? Not bit. lie just raised one
Of his hippers and winked his eye at us,
as If he would have said: Now, what are
you fellows up TO, anyhow
we had lot of strong, flexible wire
aboard and each OF us had coil OF it over
his arm. We each carried pair of pin
GERS, too. Then we started to work
I'VE punched a small hole in the after
part OF the turtles she'll and fastened an
end OF wire III 1t ana made the other end
fast to the anchor chain. Then we
stepped over to another turtle and re-
peated the operation. We soon had about
a dozen turtles fastened in this manner.
The fun then commenced. We fired
off a small cannon we had stationed on
the fo'-c'stle deck, and you should have
seen the connection. The sea was dashed
to foam, and the big brutes scurried in
all directions. tumbllng over each other
and darling about like mad.
"Our schooner was butteted about and
jolted like freight car being coupled to a
balky engine. But our turtles wereftied.
They could not escape, and soon we were
forging ahead at a ten-knot clip.
''Well, sirs, in less than two days we
had those turtles trained so that they
would go wherever we wanted them.
They would stop or drive ahead or sheer
to port or starboard. We had rugged bits
into their mouths, ana had 1ish lines for
reins. l did the driving, and rare sport
it was, L tell you.
80 we bowled along until we reached
st. Ambrose and there we came to
anchor about mile OF shore. Two of
the turtles were harnessed to a large, flat
bottomed lighter, and owing to the ra-
pidity OF the trips we loaded up our
schooner in very short time.
Then we hoisted anchor and pointed
for Callao. We reached there in seven
days. 1t seemed too bad, but as we had
no further use for our turtles we sold
them to marketman, who shipped them
| to San Francisco"
'But what did the turtles eat during
all this timer" queried the inquisitiye
passenger.
Eat ~ replied the narrator with scorn.
Don't you know that turtles can 90
without food for weeks and months at q
time? Why, when [ was travelling up the
OrinOcOp-
At this point, however, the train pulled
into the station, and Fifteen minutes for
refreshments" interrupted all further
discourse. News.