FEESH- WATER TURTLES. 169 



smooth white surface, two of which had been caught, for stragglers 

 from the main body are a lawful prize. 



" On arriving at the edge of the forest I mounted the sentinels' 

 stage just in time to see the Turtles retreating to the water on the 

 opposite side of the sand-bank. The sight was well worth the 

 trouble of ascending. They were about a mile off, but the surface 

 of the sand was blackened with the multitudes which were wad- 

 dling towards the river ; the margin of the praia was rather 

 steep, and they all seemed to tumble head fii-st down the declivity 

 into the water." 



On the 2nd of October the same party left Ega on a second 

 excursion, the object of Cardoza being this time to search certain 

 pools in the forest for yoimg Turtles. The exact situation of these 

 hidden sheets of water are known to few. The morning: was 

 cloudy and cool, and a fresh wind blew down the river ; they had 

 to struggle, therefore, against wind and current. The boat was 

 tossed about and shipped a good deal of water. Their destination 

 was a point of land twenty miles below Shimimi. The coast-line 

 was nearly straight for many miles, and the bank averaged about 

 thirty feet above the then level of the river ; at the top rose an 

 unbroken hedge of forest. No one coidd have divined that pools 

 of water existed on that elevated land. 



A path was cut through the forest by our party with their 

 hunting-knives to the pool, half a mile distant ; short poles were 

 cut and laid across the path, over which three light canoes were 

 rolled, after being dragged up the bank. A large net, seventy 

 yards in length, was then disembarked and carried to the place. 

 Netting, however, the older Indians considered unsportsmanlike ; 

 and, on reaching the pool, they commenced shooting the Turtles 

 with bows and arrows from light stages erected on the shores. 



" The pool covered an area of about four acres, and was closely 

 hemmed in by the forest, which, in picturesque variety and 

 grouping, often exceeded almost anything I had seen. The 

 margins for some distance were swampy, and covered with large 

 tufts of fine grass called matupd. These tufts were in many places 

 overrun with ferns, and exterior to them was a crowded row of 

 arborescent shrubs growing to a height of fifteen or twenty feet, 

 forming a green palisade. Aroimd the whole stood the taller 



