anywhere
between the up and down tracks.

Having piled the eggs in a convenient place for transportation in the
morning, the march was renewed, and before dawn four turtles were
turned, with little or no discomfort, all being green and much lighter
than the cumbersome loggerhead that first escaped us.

In the morning the turtles were one by one placed in the dingy and taken
aboard the smack, when we set sail for Garden Key, arriving in the snug
harbor a few hours later. It is a curious fact that the long strip of
sand to the westward, called Loggerhead Key, is mostly frequented by the
turtle of that name, the green turtle rarely going ashore there,
preferring East, Sand, and Middle Keys.

The eggs of the turtle are perfectly oval, with the exception of one or
two depressions that may occur at any part. They are hatched probably
not by the direct heat of the sun, but by the general temperature of the
sand. The instinct of the young is remarkable. We have placed young
loggerheads barely a day old in a closed room facing away from the
water, and they invariably turned in that direction. During their young
life they fall a prey to many predaceous fishes, such as sharks, also to
the larger gulls, and only a small percentage of the original brood
attains its majority.

Besides turning turtles, which is of course confined strictly to a
certain season, the fishermen of the reef resort to another method,
called pegging. The instrument of capture is a three-sided peg, often
made by cutting off the end of a file. This is attached to a long line
and fitted into a copper cap on the end of a long pole, the whole
constituting an unbarbed spear. Thus armed, the turtler sculls over the
reef, striking the turtle either as it lies asleep on the bottom or as
it rises to breathe. The peg is hurled long distances with great skill
and accuracy: as soon as it strikes, the pole comes out, and the victim
is managed by the line, often towing the dingy for a considerable
distance. The peg holds by suction; and, as it only enters the hard
shell, and that only half an inch, the animal is not in the least
injured for transportation to the North.

Key West is the head quarters of the Florida turtling-trade, and on the
north shore of the island, where a shoal reef stretches away, a number
of crawls have been from time immemorial used, being merely fences or
enclosures in which the animals are penned until the time for shipment.
By far the greate