. Zoological Society bulletin . s by far the most merciful way to carryturtles and indeed the only practical one, for ifthe flippers are left free they will be frayed bythe turtle slapping everything within reach inits efforts to turn over and it will also injurenearby turtles. When carried right side up alarge turtle will soon smother to death as itswhole weight presses on the flexible plastronand breathing becomes impossible. The onlyobjection to carrying a turtle on its back is thatin a large specimen the eyes protrude somewhat,but if kept moist they remain uninjured whenthe turtle is right
. Zoological Society bulletin . s by far the most merciful way to carryturtles and indeed the only practical one, for ifthe flippers are left free they will be frayed bythe turtle slapping everything within reach inits efforts to turn over and it will also injurenearby turtles. When carried right side up alarge turtle will soon smother to death as itswhole weight presses on the flexible plastronand breathing becomes impossible. The onlyobjection to carrying a turtle on its back is thatin a large specimen the eyes protrude somewhat,but if kept moist they remain uninjured whenthe turtle is righted. A bandage around thehead answers the same purpose. This specimen attracted much attention thefirst day while it lay on the dock over the tur-tle crawl of the unique turtle-soup cannery atKey West. It was agreed that this was thelargest green turtle that had been taken foreighteen or twenty years and that although someof the turtles of the olden time had been some-what longer none had ever been seen that wasso thick GIANT GREEN TURT ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 807 A telegram was sent the Aquarium for in-structions to buy. but the answer came after ithad been sold to two young men who were go-ing to embark in the show business, so theyhired a tent on the main street near the amuse-ment grounds and exhibited it during the Fourthof July—the turtle was captured on the Key West had seen about all itwanted of the turtle for nothing, so the showbusiness was forgotten and the turtle purchasedfor the Aquarium. It was carefully doctored—all its wounds were disinfected and coveredwith collodion, its eyes washed with boracic acidsolution, and it was laced into a rope net paddedwith sacks of sponge clippings to keep it moistin its upright position. Its weight smothered ithowever, as all the old turtlers had predicted,when it had been but twenty-four hours in thisposition on the way to New York. It is a pity that its exact weight will remainunknown since
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectzoology, bookyear1901
