Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1895-02-22
TURTLES AS MOTIVE POWER.
The Weather-Beatcn Traveller Tells Of AN
Experience la the south Pacific.


The weather-Beaton Traveller Tells of AN
Experience la the south Pacific.
speaking about turtles. observed
the weather-beaten traveller. who had
joined "A party OF drammcrs seated in
the smoking-room of a Pullman car
"Why, / have literally seen millions OF
them at cnce. The sea for miles
around rs lar a. the eye could reach,
Was---'
Where was thi,?" asked an inquisi.
tive drummer.
Near the Galapagos islands off the
west coast of South America was the
reply, and then, a. the other passengers
settled back in their seats. the weather
beaten one spun this yarn:
"lou see, he began. "we were i'm a
little schooner and were ON our way
from Cal.ao 10 ~. Ambrose island for "A
load of guano, Well, the wind sudden
IN died ont and we began to drift.
This state Of affair, kept up for several
days untA one morning we spicd land
ahead over tine port bow. II was about
seven miles away, should think.
Nov. you may not believe il. but we
suddenly ran into ,hOal O. big sea
turtles that were 80 close together YOU
could hardly see the water. They were
there in millions, and tremendous fell
lows, too, some of them weighing, |
should Judge, more than 600 pounds,
I'VE were out OF our course and it
began 10 look - ii we never would get
out OF the mess we were in Then
gentlemen. | conceived an idea. told
it to the carpenter and he thought il
was great too. And this is how it
worked
We that is the carpenter and my
self-stcppcd over the vessels side aud
let ourselves down ON the back of
great turtle, gently as we could. Did
he mind ii? Not bit. He Just raised
one of his ilippers and winked his eye
at us, as il he would have said Now,
what are YOU fellows up to, anyhow
I'VE had lot of strong, flexible
wire aboard and each of us had "A coil
of it over our arm. We each carried
pair of pincers, 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 i'm it and made the other
end fast to the anchor chain. Then
we stepped over to another turtle and
repeated the operation. We soon had
about a dozen turtles fastened in this
manner.
The fun then commenced. We fired
of small cannon we had stationed on
the fo'c'stle deck, and you should have
seen the cOmmotion. The sea was
dashed to foam and the big brutes sour
ried in all directions, tumbling over
each other and darling about like mad.
"Om schooner was bufeted about and
iolted like a freight car being coupled
were fast. They could not escape and
soon we were forging ahead at ten
knot clip.
We'll, sirs in less than two days we
had those turtles trained 50 that they
would 20 wherever we wanted them
They would stop or drive ahead or sheer
TO port or starboard. We had rugged
bits into their mouths and had fish lines
for reins. did the driving and rare
sport j was. 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
hat-bottomed lighter and owing to the
rapidity OF the trips we loaded up our
schooner in a very short time
Then we hoisted anchor and pointed
for Callao. We reached there i'm seven
days. 1t seemed too bad. but Is we had
no further use for our turtles we sold
them to a marketman, who shipped
them to San Francisco
But what did the turtles eat during
all this time?" queried the inquisitive
passenger
"Eat?' replied the narrator, with
scorn. Don't you know that turtles
IAN 90 without food for weeks and
months at a time? Why. when | was
travelling up the Orinoco--"
At this point, however the train
pulled into the station and fifteen min
ates Tor refreshments interrupted all
further discourse