272 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA. Chap. IV. 



proceedings is enormous. At least 6000 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 2000 more jars-full are 

 consumed by the inhabitants of the villages on the 

 river. Now, it takes at least twelve basketsfull of eggs, 

 or about 6000, by the wasteful process followed, to make 

 one jar of oil. The total number of eggs annually de- 

 stroyed 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 pro- 

 bably 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 appropriate 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 now does with mosquitoes. 

 The universal opinion of the settlers on the Upper 



