9 6 TORTOISES AND TURTLES. 



in the Orinoco, hence known as the Boca de la Tortuga ; and according to native 

 accounts, no other spot is to be met with on the river from its mouth to its 

 junction with the Apure, where eggs can be found in abundance. On the island 

 in question, the number of eggs deposited is enormous ; a large stretch of smooth 

 sandy beach being underlain with an almost continuous layer. To determine the 

 position and extent of the deposit, a long pole is thrust down at intervals into the 

 sand ; the sudden want of resistance to its descent proclaiming when the loose 

 layer containing the eggs has been reached. According to measurements taken by 

 Humboldt, the stratum extended to a distance of one hundred and twenty feet from 

 the water, and averaged three feet in depth. The whole is regularly parcelled out 

 among the Indians, who proceed to work the layer with the regularity of miners. 

 The earth having been removed, the eggs are carried in small baskets to the 

 neighbouring encampment, where they are thrown into long wooden troughs of 

 water. Here they are broken and stirred up with shovels, and the mass then left 

 in the sun till all the oily matter has collected at the surface, whence it is 

 continually ladled off, and taken off to be boiled over a quick fire. The result of 

 this process is a limpid, inodorous, and scarcely yellow substance, known as " turtle- 

 butter," which can be used for much the same purposes as olive-oil. In spite of 

 the enormous quantity of eggs thus taken, numbers are hatched, and Humboldt 

 saw the whole bank of the Orinoco swarming with small tortoises of an inch in 

 diameter, that escaped only with difficulty from the pursuit of the Indian children. 

 All these tortoises are vegetable feeders ; and the females greatly exceed the males in 

 size. On the upper Amazon the large species, according to Bates, is captured either 

 by means of nets or by shooting with arrows. On such occasions, after the net is 

 set in a semicircular form at one extremity of a pool, the rest of the party spread 

 themselves around the swamp at the opposite end, and begin to beat with poles in 

 order to drive the tortoises towards the middle. This process on the occasion 

 referred to " was continued for an hour or more, the beaters gradually drawing 

 nearer to each other, and driving the hosts of animals before them ; the number of 

 little snouts constantly popping above the surface of the water showing that all 

 was going on well. When they neared the net, the men moved more quickly, 

 shouting and beating with great vigour. The ends of the net were then seized by 

 several strong hands and dragged suddenly forwards, bringing them at the same 

 time together, so as to enclose all the booty in a circle. Every man now leapt into 

 the enclosure, the boats were brought up, and the turtles easily captured by the 

 hand and tossed into them." Altogether, about eighty individuals were captured 

 in the course of twenty minutes or so. In shooting tortoises, the arrow employed 

 has a strong lancet-shaped steel point, fitted to a peg which enters the tip of the 

 shaft. To the latter the peg is secured by a hank of twine some thirty or forty 

 yards in length, and neatly wound round the body of the arrow. When a tortoise 

 is struck, the peg drops out from the shaft, and is carried down by the diving- 

 animal, leaving the latter floating on the surface. Thereupon the sportsman 

 paddles up to the arrow, and proceeds to " play" his victim until it can be drawn 

 near to the surface, when it is struck with a second arrow, after which, by the aid 

 of the two cords, it can be safely drawn ashore. In many villages on the Amazon 

 every house has a pond, in which a number of these tortoises are kept for food. 



