"Unfortunately," the captain continued, "a great many people would not eat his flesh. The green-turtle feeds on sea-weed, and is very choice about what he eats, and therefore his flesh is highly esteemed. The loggerhead-turtle is much more common than the green one, but he eats shell-fish of all the sorts he can crush in his powerful jaws. The flesh of the young turtles of this variety is sometimes eaten, but the old ones are so tough and musky that a man must needs be very hungry to be able to eat them. Even their eggs are too strong of musk to be edible, and the shell is of little value; about the only use that can be made of the loggerhead-turtle is to try out the large quantities of oil that he contains.
"The flesh of the turtle you just saw is not of much consequence, for the same reason. He is more valuable for his shell, which forms the turtle, or tortoise, shell of commerce."
"I remember," said Fred, "that we saw a great deal of shell at Nagasaki, in Japan, that had been wrought into many beautiful forms. The Japanese are very skilful in this kind of work, and so are the Chinese."
"You will see more tortoise-shell," was the reply, "when you get to Singapore. A great deal of the shell comes there for a market from all parts of the Eastern Archipelago."
Frank asked how the turtle was caught, when he spent so much time in the water, and was so far away from land.
"He is caught," said the captain, "in two or three ways. He sleeps on the surface of the water, and, when thus off his guard, he can be easily approached. A boat steals quietly up to him, and, before he is aware what is happening, he is a prisoner.
THE TURTLE AT HOME.