Cuap. XI. TRIP TO CATUA. 319 
armed with guns and long hunting knives. Long before sunrise my 
friends woke me up from my hammock, where I lay, as usual, in the 
clothes worn during the day ; and after taking each a cupful of cashaca 
and ginger (a very general practice in early morning on the sand-banks), 
we commenced our walk. The waning moon still lingered in the clear 
sky, and a profound stillness pervaded sleeping camp, forest, and 
stream. Along the line of ranchos glimmered the fires made by each 
party to dry turtle-eggs for food, the eggs being spread on little wooden 
stages over the smoke. The distance to the forest from our place of 
starting was about two miles, being nearly the whole length of the 
sand-bank, which was also a very broad one; the highest part, where it 
was covered with a thicket of dwarf willows, mimosas, and arrow grass, 
lying near the ranchos. We loitered much on the way, and the day 
dawned whilst we were yet on the road ; the sand at this early hour feeling 
quite cold to the naked feet. As soon as we were able to distinguish 
things, the surface of the praia was seen to be dotted with small black 
objects. These were newly-hatched Aiyussa turtles, which were making 
their way in an undeviating line to the water, at least a mile distant. 
The young animal of this species is distinguished from that of the large 
turtle and the Tracaja by the edges of the breast-plate being raised on 
each side, so that in crawling it scores two parallel lines on the sand. 
The mouths of these little creatures were full of sand, a circumstance 
arising from their having to bite their way through many inches of 
superincumbent sand, to reach the surface on emerging from the buried 
eggs. It was amusing to observe how constantly they turned again in 
the direction of the distant river, after being handled and set’ down on 
the sand with their heads facing the opposite quarter. We saw also 
several skeletons of the large cayman (some with the horny and bony 
hide of the animal nearly perfect) embedded in the sand: they re- 
minded me of the remains of Ichthyosauri fossilised in beds of lias, 
with the difference of being buried in fine sand instead of in blue mud. 
I marked the place of one which had a well-preserved skull, and the 
next day returned to secure it. The specimen is now in the British 
Museum collection. There were also many footmarks of jaguars on the 
sand. 
We entered the forest as the sun peeped over the tree-tops far away 
down river. The party soon after divided; I keeping with a section 
which was led by Bento, the Ega carpenter, a capital woodsman. After 
a short walk we struck the banks of a beautiful little lake, having grassy 
margins and clear dark water, on the surface of which floated thick beds 
of water-lilies. We then crossed a muddy creek or watercourse that 
entered the lake, and then found ourselves on a vestinga, or tongue of 
land between two waters. By keeping in sight of one or the other of 
these there was no danger of our losing our way; all other precautions 
were therefore unnecessary. The forest was tolerably clear of under- 
wood, and consequently easy to walk through. We had not gone far 
before a soft, long-drawn whistle was heard aloft in the trees, betraying 
the presence of Mutums (Curassow birds). The crowns of the trees, a 
hundred feet or more over our heads, were so closely interwoven that 
it was difficult to distinguish the birds; the practised eye of Bento, 
