334 OILS AND FATS, ETC. 



reputation of being useful in rheumatic complaints. Several thousand 

 persons occupy themselves in the season in preparing turtle oil on the 

 banks of the Orinoco, Amazon, Negro, and other rivers of South America. 

 When the waters of the rivers begin to fall about February, millions of 

 tortoises come to deposit their eggs in the sand, and the mean depth of 

 the stratum is about three feet. The harvest of eggs is estimated 

 like the produce of a well cultivated field. An acre of sand has been 

 known to yield eggs sufficient to make 100 pots or jars of oil. The eggs 

 when collected, are thrown into large troughs of water, and being broken 

 and stirred with shovels, they remain exposed to the sun till the yolk, 

 the oily part, is collected on the surface and has time to inspissate ; as 

 fast as the oily part rises it is skimmed off and boiled over a quick fire. 

 This turtle grease or oil, when well prepared, is limpid, inodorous, and 

 slightly yellow. Tt is used not merely to burn in lamps, but in dressing 

 victuals, to which it imparts no disagreeable taste. It is not easy, how- 

 ever, to produce oil of turtles' eggs quite pure ; it has generally a 

 putrid smell, owing to the mixture of addled eggs. The total made on 

 the three shores between the junction of the Orinoco and Apur, is said to 

 be about 5,000 jars, and it takes about 5,000 eggs to make one jar of oil. 

 In the Comarca of the Rio Negro there are also about 6,000 jars made, 

 and from the small town of Barra, on the Amazon, nearly 2,000 jars are 

 sent down, most of which is made in Santarem, a mile above the 

 mouth of the Tapajos. Mauy of the marsh tortoises (Emydes), as well 

 as the marine tortoises contribute their eggs to this annual harvest. 



Porcupine Oil. — In the Tasmanian collection under this name was 

 shown an oil obtained from the Echidna hystrix. 



Emu Oil. — The skin of the Australian emu or New Holland casso- 

 wary produces six or seven quarts of a clear, beautiful bright yellow oil, 

 which is esteemed for some medicinal properties in Australia. The 

 method of extracting or " drying " out the oil is to pluck the feathers, cut 

 the skin into pieces, and boil it. 



Pirirara Oil, obtained in Brazil from a fish of that name, of 

 which there are quantities in the province of Anazonas. It is a concrete 

 oil, yellowish, and of an unpleasant flavour. It is used as a relief for rheu- 

 matism. 



(To be continued.) 



