REPTILES. 417 



northern fisherman would a salmon, until at last he lands him in the boat. 

 Only the females are used for food ; the males, which are smaller and far 

 less abundant, being regarded as very unwholesome. 



At the dry season the turtles, in their migrations to the main river, 

 stop on certain sandy islands to lay their eggs, and the operation is 

 watched with considerable interest by the natives. The whole matter of 

 turtle-egging is under government control, and sentinels are appointed to 

 watch the laying, and to see that no one interferes before the proper time, 

 so that all may have an equal chance. The eggs are laid at night, 

 immense numbers of turtles coming at the same time from the water, out 

 on the sand. The leaders dig pits, some three feet deep, and lay some 

 hundred and twenty eggs in them, and then the others deposit theirs on 

 top, until all the pits are full, when the sand is replaced, so that but little 

 signs of the eggs remain. During this egg-laying, which takes some four- 

 teen days, the sentinels are very careful not to alarm the turtles ; for on 

 disturbance they are very apt to forsake the spot and seek some more 

 secluded place. 



At last the time comes for gathering the crop of eggs. Placards are 

 posted on the doors of the church, announcing the date when the egging 

 will begin. At the appointed time hundreds of natives are gathered on 

 the spot, provided with large copper kettles for trying out the oil, and 

 hundreds of earthen jars for storing it. A tax is levied on each person 

 engaged in the operation to defray the cost of the sentinels, and then, at a 

 given signal, all fall to work simultaneously. When all the eggs are dug 

 up, the mashing begins. They are thrown into a kettle or a canoe, and 

 broken either with sticks or by the feet of the children. Next, water is 

 poured in, and the whole left in the sun for a few hours, when the oil, 

 which has stewed out, is skimmed off and placed in the jars. The annual 

 product of oil is very large, and is estimated at about twenty-four thou- 

 sand gallons. Now, as it takes some two thousand eggs to make a gallon 

 of oil, the total number of eggs annually destroyed amounts to nearly 

 fifty millions, the product of four hundred thousand turtles. 



Crocodiles and Alligators. 



In the older works the crocodiles and alligators were arranged with 

 the lizards ; to-day they are placed in a different place. To be sure, 

 they have a long, scaly body, terminating in a long tail, as do the liz- 

 ards, but in their internal structure they are so different that the natu- 

 ralist is warranted in regarding them as the highest of all the existing 

 reptiles. 



