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The Hawksbill, so named from having a long small mouth, like the beak of a hawk, is the smallest species, and is that which produces the so-much-admired tortoise-shell, of which cabinets, boxes, combs, and other things are made in Europe, and of this shell each has from three to four pounds, though some have less.
Here are three sorts of sea-turtle, namely hawksbill, loggerhead, and green: but none of them are in any esteem, neither Spaniards nor Portuguese loving them: nay they have a great antipathy against them, and would much rather eat a porpoise, though our English count the green turtle very extraordinary food. But this by the way.
Many kinds of fish, including some of the best, are forbidden on the pretence of their causing disease in women, although not injurious to the men. The hawksbill turtle and its eggs are forbidden to women suckling, and no female, until beyond child bearing, is permitted to eat of the Torres Strait pigeon.
Though large numbers of the hawksbill turtles are taken by the Cape York natives, it is very difficult to procure the shell from them; they are either too lazy to save it, or if they do so, it is bartered to the Islanders of Torres' Straits, who use it for making masks and other ornaments. Although there is a considerable variety of reptiles, snakes do not appear to be very numerous.
Our fishing party have taken in their seine to-day, two flying-fish of the gurnet species, and a hawksbill turtle. A party of natives from King Cove, headed by a chief named Toby Limp, came on board with a native woman, who was far advanced in that happy teeming state which is peculiar to females in all parts of the world.
Some were skillfully slain, and when cooked in a certain fashion, they make a very acceptable platter of water game. The Nautilus's nets hauled up several types of sea turtle from the hawksbill genus with arching backs whose scales are highly prized.
They are on the spot, and week by week, blown in by monsoon or southeast trade, the schooners come to anchor, cargo'd with copra, ivory nuts, pearl-shell, hawksbill turtle, and thirst. It is a very hard job at Goboto. That is why the pay is twice that on other stations, and that is why the company selects only courageous and intrepid men for this particular station.
It consisted of turtle soup made from the daintiest hawksbill, a red mullet with white, slightly flaky flesh, whose liver, when separately prepared, makes delicious eating, plus loin of imperial angelfish, whose flavor struck me as even better than salmon. I spent the evening in reading, writing, and thinking.
We have also caught a few hawksbill, and green turtle, and occasionally dig turtles' eggs from the sand on the beach. Saturday, Dec. 1.
In the year 1826, a hawksbill turtle was taken near Hambangtotte, which bore a ring attached to one of its fins that had been placed there by a Dutch officer thirty years before, with a view to establish the fact of these recurring visits to the same beach.
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