104 



SOUTH AMEEICA— THE ANDES REGIONS. 



moving like shoals of herrings or sardines, in obedience to some mj'sterious 

 attraction, to various spawning- grounds, where the eggs are deposited and 

 hatched. These turtles {cinostcrtwn scorpioides) , about 3 feet long, and 

 weighing about 60 pounds, usually begin their great nocturnal processions 

 towards the end. of March, pursued by the jaguar and the surrounding popu- 

 lations. According to Chafïanjon, about 500,000 turtles lay some 50,000,000 

 eggs, yielding from 15,000 to 20,000 gallons of oil, in this district of the 



Fig. 35. — Turtle Banks on the Middle Oeinoco. 

 Scale 1 ; 1,600,000. 



67'50' West oF Gr 



66°50' 



30 Miles. 



Orinoco. But unless the trade is regulated, like that of the fur-bearing seals, the 

 whole species is doomed to disappear. Already during the present century the 

 Cariben turtle-bank has been almost entirely abandoned. 



Thanks to the descriptions of Humboldt, one of the best-known animals in 

 Venezuela is the electric eel (temblador), which frequents certain creeks in the 

 llanos. During the dry season, when the impoverished streams break into basins 

 of stagnant water, the sexes separate into different pools, where their discharges 



