430 EXCURSIONS AROUND EGA 



overhead. About eleven o'clock we saw a break in the 

 forest before us, and presently emerged on the banks 

 of a considerable sheet of water. This was one of the 

 interior pools of which there are so many in this district. 

 The margins were elevated some few feet, and sloped 

 down to the water, the ground being hard and dry to 

 the water's edge, and covered with shrubby vegetation. 

 We passed completely round this pool, finding the crowns 

 of the trees on its borders tenanted by curassow birds, 

 whose presence was betrayed as usual by the peculiar 

 note which they emit. My companions shot two of them. 

 At the farther end of the lake lay a deep watercourse, 

 which we traced for about half a mile, and found to 

 communicate with another and smaller pool. This 

 second one evidently swarmed with turtles, as we saw 

 the snouts of many peering above the surface of the water : 

 the same had not been seen in the larger lake, probably 

 because we had made too much noise in hailing our dis- 

 covery, on approaching its banks. My friends made an 

 arrangement on the spot for returning to this pool, after 

 the termination of the egg harvest on Catua. 



In recrossing the space between the two pools, we 

 heard the crash of monkeys in the crowns of trees over- 

 head. The chase of these occupied us a considerable 

 time. Jose fired at length at one of the laggards of the 

 troop, and wounded him. He climbed pretty nimbly 

 towards a denser part of the tree, and a second and third 

 discharge failed to bring him down. The poor maimed 

 creature then trailed his limbs to one of the topmost 

 branches, where we descried him soon after, seated and 

 picking the entrails from a wound in his abdomen ; a 

 most heart-rending sight. The height from the ground 

 to the bough on which he was perched could not have 

 been less than 150 feet, and we could get a glimpse of 

 him only by standing directly underneath, and straining 

 our eyes upwards. We killed him at last by loading 

 our best gun with a careful charge, and resting the 

 barrel against the tree-trunk to steady the aim. A few 

 shots entered his chin, and he then fell heels over head 

 screaming to the ground. Although it was I who gave 

 the final shot, this animal did not fall to my lot in dividing 

 the spoils at the end of the day. I regret now not having 

 preserved the skin, as it belonged to a very large species 

 of Cebus, and one which I never met with afterwards. 



