314 EXCURSIONS IN NEIGHBOURHOOD OF EGA. Cuap. XI. 
the oil separates and rises to the surface. The floating oil is afterwards 
skimmed off with long spoons, made by tying large mussel-shells to the 
end of rods, and purified over the fire in copper kettles. 
The destruction of turtle eggs every year by these proceedings is 
enormous. At least 6,000 jars, holding each three gallons of the oil, 
are exported annually from the Upper Amazons and the Madeira to 
Para, where it is used for lighting, frying fish, and other purposes. It 
may be fairly estimated that 2,000 more jarfuls are consumed by the 
inhabitants of the villages on the river. Now, it takes at least twelve 
basketfuls of eggs, or about 6,000, by the wasteful process followed, to 
make one jar of oil. The total number of eggs annually destroyed 
amounts, therefore, to 48,000,000. As each turtle lays about 120, it 
follows that the yearly offspring of 400,000 turtles is thus annihilated. 
A vast number, nevertheless, remain undetected; and these would 
probably be sufficient to keep the turtle population of these rivers up to 
the mark, if the people did not follow the wasteful practice of lying in 
wait for the newly-hatched young, and collecting them by thousands for 
eating ; their tender flesh and the remains of yolk in their entrails being 
considered a great delicacy. The chief natural enemies of the turtle 
are vultures and alligators, which devour the newly-hatched young as 
they descend in shoals to the water. These must have destroyed 
an immensely greater number before the European settlers began to 
2ppropriate the eggs than they do now. It is almost doubtful if this 
natural persecution did not act as effectively in checking the increase of 
the turtle as the artificial destruction now does. If we are to believe the 
tradition of the Indians, however, it had not this result; for they say 
that formerly the waters teemed as thickly with turtles as the air does 
now with mosquitoes. The universal opinion of the settlers on the 
Upper Amazons is, that the turtle has very greatly decreased in numbers, 
and is still annually decreasing. 
We left Shimuni on the 2oth, with quite a flotilla of canoes, and 
descended the river to Catud, an eleven hours’ journey by paddle and 
current. Catud is about six miles long, and almost entirely encircled 
by its praia. The turtles had selected for their egg-laying a part of the 
sand-bank which was elevated at least twenty feet above the present 
level of the river; the animals, to reach the place, must have crawled 
up aslope. As we approached the island, numbers of the animals were 
seen coming to the surface to breathe, in a small shoaly bay. Those 
who had light montarias sped forward with bows and arrows to shoot 
them. Carepira was foremost, having borrowed a small and very 
unsteady boat of Cardozo, and embarked in it with his little son. After 
bagging a couple of turtles, and whilst hauling in a third, he over- 
balanced himself ; the canoe went over, and he with his child had to 
swim for their lives, in the midst of numerous alligators, about a mile 
from the land. The old man had to sustain a heavy fire of jokes from 
his companions for several days after this mishap. Such accidents are 
only laughed at by these almost amphibious people. 
The number of persons congregated on Catud was much greater than 
on Shimunf, as the population of the banks of several neighbouring lakes 
