39^ CHELONIA 



CHAP. 



opinion of the settlers on the Upper Amazon is, that the turtle 

 has very greatly decreased in numbers, and is still annually 

 decreasing. 



" The principal object of another expedition was to search 

 certain pools in the forest for young turtle. We started from 

 the praia at sunrise on the 7th of October in two canoes, con- 

 taining twenty-three persons, nineteen of whom were Indians. 

 The pool covered an area of about four or five acres, and was 

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

 and grouping of trees and foliage, exceeded almost everything 

 I had yet witnessed. The margins for some distance were 

 swampy, and covered with large tufts of fine grass. The pool 

 was nowhere more than five feet deep, one foot of which was not 

 water, but extremely fine and soft mud. 



" Cardozo and I spent an hour paddling about. The Indians 

 seemed to think that netting the animals, as Cardozo proposed 

 doing, was not lawful sport, and wished first to have an hour or 

 two's old-fashioned practice with their weapons. I was astonished 

 at the skill which they displayed in shooting turtles from little 

 stages made of poles and cross pieces of wood. They did not 

 wait for their coming to the surface to breathe, but watched for 

 the slight movements in the water which revealed their presence 

 underneath. These little tracts on the water are called the 

 sirire ; the instant one was perceived an arrow flew from the 

 bow of the nearest man, and never failed to pierce the shell of 

 the submerged animal. When the turtle was very distant, of 

 course the aim had to be taken at a considerable elevation, but 

 the marksmen preferred a longish range, because the arrow then 

 fell more perpendicularly on the shell, and entered it more 

 deeply. 



" The arrow used in turtle-shooting has a strong lancet-shaped 

 steel point fitted into a peg, which enters the tip of the shaft. 

 The peg is secured to the shaft by twine, being some thirty or 

 forty yards in length, and neatly wound round the body of the 

 arrow. When the missile enters the shell the peg drops out, 

 and the pierced animal descends with it towards the bottom, 

 leaving the shaft floating on the surface. This being done the 

 sportsman paddles in his canoe to the place, and gently draws 

 the animal by the twine, humouring it by giving it the- rein 

 when it plunges, until it is brought again near the surface, when 



