Cuap. XI. TURTLE POOLS. 308 
lets dry up, and then seek in countless swarms their favourite sand 
islands ; for it is only a few praias that are selected by them out of the 
great number existing. The young animals remain in the pools through- 
out the dry season. These breeding-places of turtles then lie twenty to. 
thirty or more feet above the level of the river, and are accessible only 
by cutting roads through the dense forest. 
We left Ega on our first trip, to visit the sentinels whilst the turtles 
were yet laying on the 26th of September. Our canoe was a stoutly- 
built igarité, arranged for ten paddlers, and having a large arched toldo. 
at the stern, under which three persons could sleep pretty comfortably. 
In passing down the narrow channel to the mouth of the Teffé, I 
noticed that the yellow waters of the Solimoens were flowing slowly 
inwards towards the lake, showing how much fuller and stronger, at this 
season, was the current of the main river than that of its tributary. On 
reaching the broad stream, we descended rapidly on the swift current to. 
the south-eastern or lower end of the large wooded island of Bari, 
which here divides the river into two great channels. The distance was. 
about twelve miles: the island of Shimuni lies in the middle of the 
north-easterly channel, and is reached by passing round the end of 
Bariad. Two miles further down the broad, wild, and turbid river, lies 
the small island of Curubara, skirted like the others by a large praia ; 
this is not, however, frequented by turtles, on account of the coarse, 
gritty nature of the deposit. The sand-banks appear to be formed only 
where there is a remanso or still water, and the wooded islands to which 
they are generally attached probably first originated in accumulations of 
sand. 
We landed on Curubart ; Cardozo wishing to try the pocos (wells, or 
deep pools) which lie here as in other praias between the sand-bank 
and its island, for fish and tracajas. The sun was now nearly vertical, 
and the coarse, heated sand burn* our feet as we trod. We walked, or 
rather trotted nearly a mile before reaching the pools: there was not a 
breath of wind nor a cloud to moderate the heat of mid-day, and the 
Indians who carried the fishing-net suffered greatly. On arriving at the 
ponds we found the water was quite warm; the net brought up only 
two or three small fishes, and we thus had our toilsome journey for 
nothing. 
Re-embarking, we paddled across to Shimunt, reaching the commence- 
ment of the praia an hour before sunset. The island proper is about 
three miles long and half a mile broad: the forest with which it is 
covered rises to an immense and uniform height, and presents all round 
a compact, impervious front. Here and there a singular tree, called 
Pao mulatito (mulatto wood), with polished dark-green trunk, rose con- 
spicuously amongst the mass of vegetation. The sand-bank, which lies 
at the upper end of the island, extends several miles, and presents an 
irregular, and in some parts, strongly waved surface, with deep hollows 
and ridges. When upon it, one feels as though treading an almost 
boundless field of sand: for towards the south-east, where no forest-line 
terminates the view, the white rolling plain stretches away to the 
horizon. The north-easterly channel of the river, lying between the 
sands and the further shore of the river, is at least two miles in breadth; 
