54 BULLETIN 134, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Green turtles are kept in a " turtle crawl " made by placing heavj 

 stakes in the water near the shore where it is about three feet deep. 

 The turtle is then released until bought up by the traders or until 

 sold in Colon. An account is kept of the time when the turtle has 

 come ashore to lay its eggs. If the turtle has not yet been captured, 

 a notch is cut on a stick every day until the fourteenth day has gone 

 by. The fisherman and his wife then go to the place where the 

 turtle has its nest and on the fifteenth night when the turtle again 

 comes ashore to lay eggs, it is caught by its flippers and the eggs 

 are removed from the nest. A turtle calendar or notched stick is 

 carried by the Tule by a cord hung about the neck, and as many of 

 them have a turtle nest located the notched stick calendars are a 

 common occurrence. Boundary lines on the small islands are noth- 

 ing more than piles of sticks or stones and a turtle nest located on 

 one individual's land is the property of the owner of the land. The 

 individual's rights are scrupulously respected by the other land- 

 owners on the island. 



A peculiar practice is the Tule method of catching rats. As the 

 houses are roofed with heavy thatch a large number of rats make 

 it their dwelling place. On rat-catching day a representative group 

 of men assembles at the house to be cleaned of rats and with clubs 

 and long sticks climb on the roof and beat the thatch; as the rats 

 descend the women and childern assembled below kill them with 

 clubs. The dead rats are then loaded in a boat and hauled out to 

 sea and dumped overboard. 



Metals and their treatment. — In recent years there have been many 

 expeditions organized to search for gold in Darien. Such prospect- 

 ing has invariably led to unsatisfactory results. Nowhere in Darien 

 in recent times has gold been found in paying quantities, although 

 copper deposits and manganese has been reported as existing in 

 large quantities. 



The old Indian gold mines of Darien have never been found to 

 yield the golden metal that was so persistently sought by the Con- 

 quistadores. An English company is now carrying on mining opera- 

 tions at the site of the old Cana mine of early Spanish days. The 

 mine is located at an altitude of 2,000 feet at the southeastern base 

 of Mt. Pirre, a spur of mountains projecting northward from the 

 Serrania del Darien. This mine was formerl}' reached by a paved 

 road from Santa Marta de Real on the Tuyra River. 



Unquestionably there was a large quantity of gold mined by the 

 Indians of Darien before the coming of the Spanish. The chiefs 

 and leading men are reported to have drunk from golden cups 

 wrought in beautiful shapes and showing excellent workmanship. 

 Peter Martyr gives an account of golden trumpets and bells in the 



