LIZARDS AND OTTEHS. 511 



lies the almost ruined mission of San Miguel de la Tortuga. 

 The Indians assured us that the environs of this little 

 mission ahound in otters with a very fine fur, called by the 

 Portuguese ' water-dogs ' (perritos de agua) ; and what ia 

 still more remarkable, in lizards (lagartos) with only two feet. 

 The whole of this country, which is very accessible between 

 the Kio Cuchivero and the strait of Baraguan, is worthy 

 of being visited by a well-informed zoologist. The layartc 

 destitute of hinder extremities, is perhaps a species of Siren, 

 different from the Siren lacertina of Carolina. If it were 

 a saurian, a real Bimanis (Chirotes, Cuv.), the natives 

 would not have compared it to a lizard. Besides the arrau 

 turtles, of which I have in a former place given a detailed 

 account, an innumerable quantity of land tortoises also, 

 called morocoi, are found on the banks of the Orinoco, 

 between Uruana and Eucaramada. During the great heats 

 of summer, in the time of drought, these animals remain 

 without taking food, hidden beneath stones, or in the holes 

 they have dug. They issue from their shelter and begin 

 to eat, only when the humidity of the first rains penetrates 

 into the earth. The terekay, or tajelu turtle which lives 

 in fresh water, has the same habits. I have already spoken 

 of the summer-sleep of some animals of the tropics. As 

 the natives know the holes in which the tortoises sleep 

 amidst the dried lands, they get out a great number at once, 

 by digging fifteen or eighteen inches deep. Father Grili 

 says that this operation, which he had seen, is not without 

 danger, because serpents often bury themselves in summer 

 with the terekaifs. 



From, the island of Cucuruparu, to the capital of Guiana, 

 commonly called Angostura, we were but nine days on 

 the water. The distance is somewhat less than ninety- 

 five leagues. "We seldom slept on shore ; but the torment 

 of the mosquitos diminished in proportion as we advanced. 

 AVe landed on the 8th of June at a farm (Hato de San 

 Kafael del Capuchino) opposite the mouth of the Rio 

 Apure. I obtained some good observations of latitude and 

 longitude.* Having two months before taken horary angles 



* I had found, on the 4th of April, for the Boca del Rio Apure (on 

 the western bank of the Orinoco), the latitude 7 36' 30", the longitude 

 ty /' 30" ; on the 8th of June I found, for the Hat} del Capuchino (oa 



