onceswallowed by a lively young hawk-bill turtle, and the remainder weresoon seized by some yellow eels and rock-cod, before the larger andslower-moving turtle (of which there were about twenty in the dock)discerned them. I waited about on the reef in the vicinity for quitethree hours or more, returning to the pool at intervals and examiningthe condition of its occupants. But, at the end of that time, the _oap_had apparently taken no effect, and, as night was near, I returned tothe village.
On the following morning, I again went to the "dock," lowered my line,and caught six rock-cod. In the stomachs of two I found the undigestedfibres of the _oap_ which, through expansion, they had been unable todislodge; but that it had not had any effect on them I was sure, forthese two fish were as strong and vigorous when hooked as were the fourothers in whose stomachs there was no sign of _oap_.
The young hawkbill turtle, however, was floating on the surface, andseemed very sick.
Here is a point for ichthyologists. Are the digestive arrangements of aturtle more delicate than those of a fish?
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