The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-12-25
sEBEC's WISE TURTLES.
BI ain Power That Enables Them to
Dine ON EeIs.
From the New York Sun.

From the New York Sun.
Sebec, Me.-There are two humble dem
liens Of sebec Lake which help, with the
landlocked salmon, the trout. the black
bass the white perch and the pckerel, to
give this inland water sheet a cosmopol-
itan character. They are the eel and the
turtle. Neither is sought by sportsmen,
and the eel Is abhorred by fishermen on
account Of its Objectionable habit of TAX
ing the bait meant for perch and salmon.
No number of. stolen minnows serves to
satisfy its appetite and the only way to
get rid of the eel that once has been at
tracted to the bait is to hook it, draw it
up to the boats gunwale and cut it's head
off. There is a further retributive JUS
tice for the cells when the pot fishermen
catch them in traps in the autumn as they
run down the tributary streams to their
winter home in the deep water of the lake.
Packed in barrels, they are shipped to the
Boston markets, where they arrive alive
and squirming none the worse for their
$50 miles of overland travel
The turtles rarely bother the fishermen
in any way, and as they account for the
disappearance of a great many cells every
year they would be in high favor with an
glers We're il not for the suspicion that
they eat fish spawn. The only case of
downright piracy recorded against a tur-
tie at Se5ec Lake was committed against
the peace and welfare of John Robbins
the fishing guide and master pilot of the
lake. Robbins, having set a line over
night for cells from Crockett's wharf
found on visiting the place in the morning
instead of stretching out into the water
the line led shoreward under the wharf.
Tracing it up, he found that an eel had
taken the hook and that a turtle had can
tured the eel aud had carried il under the
wharf, where it was comfortably having
breakfast. Robbins could not get to the
turtle. and when he pulled hard he got
only the head of the eel, the turtle keeping
the rest.
As a swimmer the eel outclasses the tur-
Ire, which is not a pacemaker either on
land or in water. But for all that the tur-
Tie is a good fisherman and has the get
| three qualities which Aesop Tong ago testl-
| fed TO. The Sebec Lake turtle is a big
! fellow The biggest of the fresh-water kind
! with jaws as strong ana snappy as a fox
| trap. 1T is rubber neck of the first wa
| ter. and can telescope its neck and head
] within its shell beyond sight or reach when
| il prefers Seclusion. or can thrust then,
! out with the swiftness OF a darting snake
when anything calls for its attention out
| side. II approves of fish, inviting their
| within ats shell all which swim within its
| reach but its preference is for eels. and in
| its advances to them 1t displays consider
! able generafship Where a rivulet comes
/ into the lake or "a little channel runs hack
! into the shore, turtle is apt TO be found
! lying somewhere about lis mouth. Ii takes
/ matters easily, basking in the sun. and
! when an eel comes nosing along the shore
! II stirs not a hipper and pretends to he
| thinking Of something else. 1t thoroughly
| knows the habits of the eel and foresees
| that when one comes 10 the runlet the
| chances are seven in ten that Il VIII go
| up it on the chance Of catching something
! to eat. No sooner has the eers tain fairly
/ disappeared from view an the opening than
| the turGe, showing for the first time
| an interest in its movements. swims softly
/ to the mouth OF the watercourse and take
| up it after the eel There is no more mos
| SUM business now on the turtles part but
/ a straight chase. In the narrow channaf
| the eel cannot double and get pasr tba
| turtle, and unless the watercours, heads
! hoe pond or widens into a pool al no
/ great distance from the mouth. the eel
| strands on some shallow where the turtle
! ta@ens 90 Il and carries il off for dinner
] similarly, when the GELS after their FASH
| ION OF wet morning leave the water 10
/ go foraging over the swamps ana prassv
/ swales. the turtle lakes shore leave ana
! goes after them. In "A clear space the tur-
! tle can outpace the ccl on land. but where
/ the grass IS high the e6l, wrggllng through
| ID where the turtle has 60 crush ii down
| ran often keep ahead ana win back 10 The
/ water.
Some years ago fisherman named
! Badger, skipping bis bait for plokerel