FRESH-WATEE TUETLES. 167 



There are four or five of these Eoyal Praias, as they are called, in 

 the district, each having its commandant, whose business is to see 

 that every inhabitant has an equal chance in the egg-field. 



" The pregnant Turtles descend from the interior pools of the 

 main river in July and August, before the outlets dry up, and seek 

 their favourite sand-island in countless swarms ; for it is only a 

 few praias that are selected by them out of the great number 

 existing. When hatched, the young animals remain in the pools 

 throughout the dry season ; for these breeding-places of the Turtle 

 then lie from twenty to thirty feet above the level of the river, and 

 are accessible only by cutting a path through the dense forest." On 

 the 26th of September Mr. Bates left Ega with his companion, who 

 was about to visit the sentinels placed to mark when and where the 

 Turtles laid their eggs. Their conveyance was a stoutly- built canoe, 

 or igarete, arranged for two paddlers, with an arched covering in 

 the stern, under which three persons could sleep pretty comfort- 

 ably. The swift current of the Solimoens carried them rapidly to 

 the large wooded island of Baria, which divides the river into two 

 broad channels. Shimuni lies in the middle of the north-easterly 

 passage. They were quickly paddled across, reaching it an hour 

 before sunset. The island is about three miles long and half a 

 mile broad. The forest which covers it rises to an immense 

 uniform height, presenting all round a compact and impervious 

 front, the uniformity being interrupted here and there by a singular 

 tree, called Mulatto wood, whose polished dark- green trunk is seen 

 conspicuously through the mass of vegetation. The sand-bank lies at 

 the upper end of the island, and extends several miles, presenting 

 an irregular surface of ridges and hollows. At the further shore to 

 the north-east, where no forest line shuts out the view, the white, 

 rolling, sandy plain stretches away to the horizon ; to the south- 

 west a channel, about a mile in breadth, separates Baria from 

 Shimuni. 



Arrived at this island, Mr. Bates proceeds to describe with great 

 minuteness the operations of the Turtles, as well as those of the 

 sentinels placed to watch them. 



" We foimd two sentinels," he says, " lodged in a corner of the 

 praia, where it commences at the foot of the towering forest west 

 of the island, having built themselves a little rancho with poles 



