TRACAJA FISHING 



403 



whole body of turtles frequenting a praia does not finish 

 laying in less than fourteen or fifteen days, even when 

 there is no interruption. When all have done, the area 

 (called by the Brazilians tdboleiro) over which they have 

 excavated, is distinguishable from the rest of the praia 

 only by signs of the sand having been a little disturbed. 



On rising I went to join my friends. Few recollections 

 of my Amazonian rambles are more vivid and agreeable 

 than that of my walk over the white sea of sand on this 

 cool morning. The sky was cloudless ; the just-risen 

 sun was hidden behind the dark mass of woods on Shimuni, 

 but the long line of forest to the west, on Baria, with its 

 plumy decorations of palms, was lighted up with his 

 yellow, horizontal rays. A faint chorus of singing birds 

 reached the ears from across the water, and flocks of gulls 

 and plovers were crying plaintively over the swelling 

 banks of the praia, where their eggs lay in nests made in 

 little hollows of the sand. Tracks of stray turtles were 

 visible on the smooth white surface of the praia. The 

 animals which thus wander from the main body are lawful 

 prizes of the sentinels ; they had caught in this way two 

 before sunrise, one of which we had for dinner. In my 

 walk I disturbed several pairs of the chocolate and drab- 

 coloured wild goose (Anser jubatus) which set off to run 

 along the edge of the water. The enjoyment one feels in 

 rambling over these free, open spaces, is no doubt en- 

 hanced by the novelty of the scene, the change being very 

 great from the monotonous landscape of forest which 

 everywhere else presents itself. 



On arriving at the edge of the forest I mounted the 

 sentinel's stage, just in time to see the turtles retreating 

 to the water on the opposite side of tne sand-bank, after 

 having laid their eggs. The sight was well worth the 

 trouble of ascending the shaky ladder. They were about 

 a mile off, but the surface of the sands was blackened with 

 the multitudes which were waddling towards the river ; 

 the margin of the praia was rather steep, and they all 

 seemed to tumble head first down the declivity into the 

 water. 



I spent the morning of the 27th collecting insects in 

 the woods of Shimuni ; assisting my friend in the after- 

 noon to beat a large pool for Tracajas, Cardozo wishing to 

 obtain a supply for his table at home. The pool was 

 nearly a mile long, and lay on one side of the island be- 



