saving reality, for now when the light of life seemed about to be quenched for ever in the poor wanderer, the quickening fulness of returning hope, a sudden joy to the sinking spirit renewed its vitality. Human voices in exclamation thrilled the sufferer's heart, as round the headland covered with tangled brushwood the little boat pushed by its hardy rowers boldly advanced. A scream of joy and fear falls upon their ears. They pause and look around. Again it comes, but more feebly than before. At length they behold the wanderer, whose strange and terrible appearance they could scarcely recognise as human.

With tattered garments, hanging like rags about him, his face obscured by neglected beard, his hair matted, and his emaciated frame covered only by shrivelled skin, like a skeleton with parchment, there he lay with fluttering heart, gasping breath and reeling brain. Yet the lost one was regained, and, soon restored to the loving hearts and kindly solicitude of home, in renewed health and happiness often in after years gratefully told the tale of his adventure, and excited the sympathy of his listeners by the painful recital of his sufferings.

A class of men whose calling, no less than that of the Live Oakers, exposes them to strange incidents and often to peril, are the Turtlers, who frequent the various islets about Florida. The Tortugas, a group eighty miles from Key West, consisting of a few uninhabitable banks of shelly sands, intersected by deep intricate channels, are especially resorted to by them; and many a luckless mariner called to that dangerous

coast has met his end from careless contact of his vessel with the great coral reef adjacent. To these islet banks thickly spread with corals, sea gems, and the fanciful jewellery of the deep, turtles of various kinds resort to deposit their eggs in the sand; with flocks, arriving every spring, of the sea-fowl. Multitudes of beautiful fishes fill the neighbouring waters. Perhaps no more interesting scene could be imagined than that presented by these famous islands beneath the influence of their gorgeous sunsets. The brilliant orb of day seems there to triple its dimensions; partially sunk beneath the waves, glittering through their transparence with crimson flush, it irradiates their iris hues, while in its encircling splendour the whole heavens are transfigured as by a flood of golden light, purpling the distant clouds which hover over the horizon. A marvellous blaze of splendour is poured over the west, and even the masses of vapour appear like mountains of molten gold, till gradually their brilliance disappears behind the sable veil of night.

The hawk, hovering on noiseless wing, enjoys the gentle sea-breeze; the terns settle on their nests, and the pelicans hasten to their homes among the mangroves. Skimming the surface of the waters, glistening in the moonlight, the broad forms of the turtles are then seen, their anxiety and fear told by their hurried breathing, heard in the silence as they toil along. On nearing the shore the turtle raises her head, looks round and carefully examines the objects on it. Observing anything which seems to measure

her proceedings, she utters a loud hissing sound by which to intimidate her enemies, then instantly sets sail and wades to a considerable distance. On the contrary, should she find everything quiet and propitious she crawls on the beach, and having found a convenient spot, again gazes cautiously round. With the utmost ingenuity she alternately raises and scatters the sand till a hole is dug to the depth of eighteen inches or, sometimes, two feet. After depositing her eggs and leaving the hatching of them to the heat of the sun, she launches once more into the deep. Those who search for the eggs are provided with a light stiff cane or ram-rod with which they probe the sands along the shore, endeavoring to keep as near as possible to the tracks of the animal, which, however, it is not always easy to ascertain, often obliterated as they are by winds and heavy rains. The turtlers employ various methods of cap

ture.

Sometimes nets are placed across the entrance of streams, formed of intricate meshes, into which the poor turtles once entrapped are only the more entangled the more they attempt to extricate themselves. Frequently they are harpooned in the usual way.

The turtlers, men of humble birth, must necessarily possess energy and enterprise for their vocation. These qualities not unfrequently raise to higher stations, and a naval officer with whom Audubon met had formerly been a turtler. He was accustomed to relate many an exciting adventure which gave proof of the perils to which those who engage in such a career are exposed. Among them was the following.

THE TURTLER'S STORY.

In the calm of a fine moonlight night as I was admiring the beauty of the heavens, and the broad glare of light that flamed from the trembling surface of the water around, I chanced to be paddling along a sandy shore which I thought well fitted for my repose, being covered with tall grass, and as the sun was not many degrees above the horizon, I felt anxious to pitch my musquito far or net, and spend the night in the wilderness. The bellowing notes of thousands of bull-frogs in a neighboring swamp might lull me to rest, and I looked upon the flocks of blackbirds that were assembling as sure companions in this secluded retreat. I proceeded up a little stream to insure the safety of my canoe from any sudden storm, when as I gladly advanced a beautiful yawl came unexpectedly in view. Surprised at such a sight in a part of the country then scarcely known, I felt a sudden check in the circulation of my blood. My paddle dropped from my hands, and fearfully indeed, as I picked it up, did I look towards the unknown boat. On reaching it, I saw its sides marked with stains of blood, and looking with anxiety over the gunwale, I perceived to my horror two human bodies covered with gore. Pirates or hostile Indians I was persuaded had perpetrated the foul deed, and my alarm naturally increased; my heart fluttered, stopped, and heaved with unusual tremors, and I looked towards the setting sun in consternation and despair.

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