Then he went on to tell how the giant turtles would come out of the ocean on moonlight nights to dig holes for their eggs. He explained that the reptiles would cover the eggs with sand and return to the sea. Vevi hadn’t known that turtles laid eggs. Or that they left them for the sun to hatch. She asked what became of the turtle babies.
“As soon as they hatch, they creep down to the water,” Captain Tarwell explained. “There they feed on tadpoles, snails and insects.”
He told the children that one could guess a turtle’s age by the rims on its shell. “If a shell has six rims, then the turtle is six years old,” he said. “But after many years, the rims wear away, so then one can only estimate the age.”
By this time, the three had reached Cabell’s pond. Captain Tarwell sat down on the beach to smoke his pipe and rest. He said he would wait there and watch while the children caught turtles.
Stripping off shoes and stockings, Jamie boldly waded in.
Moving quietly into a patch of rushes, he soon caught a pancake turtle in his bare hands. But after he had examined it, he threw it back into the water.
“You don’t want this old fellow,” he called to Vevi. “He’s sickly. You’d never win a race with him.”
Jamie kept looking for other turtles. Soon he had caught three. But he let each one go. One had a broken shell and the other two were not active.
“I’d like ANY turtle,” Vevi declared.
Jamie paid no attention to her. He kept diving into the water with his hands. Now that he had stirred up the pond, the turtles were harder to catch. He waded farther and farther out into the pond trying to find them.