HARVEST OF TORTOISE-EGGS. 995 
sensible to danger, continue to work with the great- 
est diligence even in the presence of the fishers. 
The Indians assemble about the beginning of 
April, and commence operations under the direction 
of the missionaries, who divide the egg-ground into 
portions. The leading person among them first 
examines, by means of a long pole or cane, how far 
the bed extends, and then allots the shares. The 
natives remove the earth with their hands, gather 
up the eggs, and carry them in baskets to the 
camp, where they throw them into long wooden 
troughs filled with water. They are next broken 
and stirred, and remain exposed to the sun, un- 
til the yolk, which swims at the surface, has time 
to inspissate, when it is taken off and boiled. The 
oil thus obtained is limpid and destitute of smell, 
and is used for lamps as well as for cooking. The 
shores of the missions of Uruana furnish 1000 bo- 
tijas or jars annually, and the three stations jointly 
may be supposed to furnish 5000. It requires 5000 
eggs to fill a jar; and if we estimate at 100 or 116 
the number which one tortoise produces, and allow 
one-third to be broken at the time of laying, we 
may presume that 330,000 of these animals assem- 
ble every year, and lay 33,000,000 of eggs. This 
calculation, however, is much below the truth. 
Many of them lay only 60 or 70; great numbers 
of them again are devoured by jaguars; the In- 
dians take away a considerable quantity to eat 
them dried in the sun, and break nearly as many 
while gathering them ; and, besides, the proportion 
that is hatched is such, that Humboldt saw the 
whole shore near the encampment of Uruana swarm- 
ing with young ones. Moreover, all the arraus do 
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