190 



JOURNEY FROM THE RIO DOCE 



boil in sea-water. While our people were employed in fetching some, 

 and in picking up drift-wood on the beach, we found to our great 

 surprise, at a short distance from our fire, a prodigious sea-turtle 

 (testudo my das. Linn.) which was just going to deposit its eggs: 

 nothing could be more welcome to our hungry company ; the animal 

 seemed to have come expressly to provide us with a supper. Our 

 presence did not disturb it ; we could touch it, and even lift it up ; 

 but to do this it required the united strength of four men. Notwith- 

 standing all our exclamations of surprise and our deliberations what 

 to do with it, the creature manifested no sign of uneasiness but a kind 

 of hissing, nearly like the noise made by the geese when any one ap- 

 proaches their young. It continued to work, as it had commenced, 

 with its fin-like hinder feet, digging in the sand a cylindrical hole 

 from eight to twelve inches broad ; it threw the earth very regularly 

 and dexterously, and as it were keeping time on both sides, and began 

 immediately after to deposit its eggs. 



One of our two soldiers laid himself all along on the ground near 

 this purveyor of our kitchen, and took the eggs out of the hole as fast 

 as the turtle deposited them ; and in this manner we collected 100 

 eggs in about ten minutes. We considered whether we should add 

 this fine animal to our collections ; but the great weight of the turtle, 

 which would have required a mule for itself alone, and the difficulty 

 of loading such an awkward burden, made us resolve to spare its life, 

 and to content ourselves with its eggs. 



Those huge animals, the midas, and the soft-shelled turtle ( testudo 

 mydas and coriacea J, as well as the testudo caretta, or cauanna, de- 

 posit their eggs in the sand in the warmest months of the year, par- 

 ticularly in this uninhabited part of the coast, between the Riacho 

 and the Mucuri ; they come on shore for this purpose in the evening 

 twilight, drag their heavy bodies up the sandy coast, dig a hole, in 

 which they deposit their eggs, fill it up with sand, which they tread 



