Page:Here and there in Yucatan - miscellanies (IA herethereinyucat00lepl 0).djvu/34

 as the green turtle, is caught with harpoons and nets. The green turtle is carried to British Honduras, where they are worth from one and a half to three dollars each, the shell not being used. The poor creatures are transported in small sailing vessels, where they lie on their backs on deck exposed to the scorching sun, and once a day have buckets of water dashed over them to keep them alive.

Large pens are built at the water's edge to keep the turtles in until shipped for the market. When they become lean, from being kept thus too long, in order that they may fatten again, they are set free in the lake that is in the interior of the island—after being branded with the mark of the owner. They never multiply there, nor make their way through the channel out to the ocean, but owing to the good aliment that they find, are soon again in fine condition for the market.