TURTLE-CATCHING AND COLLECTING EGGS. 627 



of the skull, when the Indians, attacking it with their clubs, 

 appeared completely to have knocked out every spark of life. 

 It was at last hauled up and placed on the bow of the corial. 

 While the corial was being drawn across the rapids, two of 

 the Indians took up the cayman in order to lay it in a more 

 convenient position. Scarcely had they done so, when at one 

 bound it jumped into the river and disappeared. They could 

 never afterwards be persuaded to touch a cayman. 



TURTLE-CATCHING AND COLLECTING EGGS. 



Both the Amazon and the Orinoco, with their tributaries, 

 are frequented by several species of turtles. The mode em- 

 ployed for capturing the animals, as well as collecting the 

 eggs, applies equally to both rivers. 



There are several species of fresh- water turtles. The largest 

 in the upper waters grow to a great size, measuring nearly 

 three feet long, by two in breadth ; so that one is a load for 

 the strongest man. The Brazilian Government make regu- 

 lations for protecting the turtles whilst laying, so that all 

 the inhabitants on the banks may have an equal chance of 

 procuring a supply of eggs. The natives collect from all 

 quarters for this object. The turtles select the highest and 

 driest banks composed of the finest sand, which will be a 

 sufficient time above water to allow of the eggs being hatched 

 by the heat of the sun. Some of these banks are of great 

 extent many miles long, and often one or more broad. They 

 are the haunts and breeding-places of many different kinds of 

 animals, and are covered by tracks of alligators and turtles. 

 Not only do these here make their nests, but birds lay in 

 them their eggs during the dry season ; and different kinds of 

 fish use them for the same purpose when covered with water. 



