"Yes, it is; I have often seen them before: they call them sea-anemones - they are animals; but I don't know whether they are shell-fish or not. Now, let us walk out to the end of this point of land, and see if we can discover any opening in the reef. The sun is going down, and we shall not have more than an hour's daylight, and then we must look out for a place to sleep in."
"But what is that?" cried William, pointing to the sand - "that round dark thing?"
"That's what I'm very glad to see, William: it's a turtle. They come up about this time in the evening to drop their eggs, and then they bury them in the sand."
"Can't we catch them?"
"Yes, we can catch them if we go about it quietly; but you must take care not to go behind them, or they will throw such a shower of sand upon you, with their hind flappers or fins, that they would blind you and escape at the same time. The way to catch them is to get at their heads and turn them over on their backs by one of the fore-fins, and then they cannot turn back again."
"Let us go and catch that one."
"I should think it very foolish to do so, as we could not take it away, and it would die to-morrow from the heat of the sun."
"I did not think of that, Ready; if we come to live here, I suppose we shall catch them whenever we want them."
"No, we shall not, for they only come on shore in the breeding-season; but we will make a turtle pond somewhere which they cannot get out of, but which the sea flows into; and then when we catch them we will put them into it, and have them ready for use as we require them."
"That will be a very good plan," replied William.