4i6 



EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA 



the side of each hut, the produce of the labours of the 

 family. 



In the hurry of digging some of the deeper nests are 

 passed over ; to find these out the people go about pro- 

 vided with a long steel or wooden probe, the presence of 

 the eggs being discoverable by the ease with which the 

 spit enters the sand. When no more eggs are to be found, 

 the mashing process begins. The egg, it may be here 

 mentioned, has a flexible or leathery shell ; it is quite round, 

 and somewhat larger than a hen's egg. The whole heap 

 is thrown into an empty canoe and mashed with wooden 

 prongs ; but sometimes naked Indians and children jump 

 into the mass and tread it down, besmearing themselves 

 with yolk and making about as filthy a scene as can well 

 be imagined. This being finished, water is poured into 

 the canoe, and the fatty mass then left for a few hours to 

 be heated by the sun, on which the oil separates and rises 

 to the surface. The floating oil is afterwards skimmed 

 off with long spoons, made by tying large mussel-shells 

 to the end of rods, and purified over the fire in copper 

 kettles. 



The destruction of turtle eggs every year by these pro- 

 ceedings is enormous. At least 6000 jars, holding each 

 three gallons of the oil, are exported annually from the 

 Upper Amazons and the Madeira to Para, where it is used 

 for lighting, frying fish, and other purposes. It may be 

 fairly estimated that 2000 more jarsful are consumed by 

 the inhabitants of the villages on the river. Now, it 

 takes at least twelve basketsful of eggs, or about 6000, 

 by the wasteful process followed, to make one jar of oil. 

 The total number of eggs annually destroyed amounts, 

 therefore, to 48,000,000. As each turtle lays about 120, 

 it follows that the yearly offspring of 400,000 turtles is 

 thus annihilated. A vast number, nevertheless, remain 

 undetected ; and these would probably be sufficient to 

 keep the turtle population of these rivers up to the mark, 

 if the people did not follow the wasteful practice of lying 

 in wait for the newly-hatched young, and collecting them 

 by thousands for eating ; their tender flesh and the re- 

 mains of yolk in their entrails being considered a great 

 delicacy. The chief natural enemies of the turtle are 

 vultures and alligators, which devour the newly-hatched 

 young as they descend in shoals to the water. These must 

 have destroyed an immensely greater number before the 



