488 



with water. In these troughs the eggs, broken 

 and stirred with shovels, remain exposed to the 

 Sun, till the yolk, the oily part, which swims on 

 the surface, has time to inspissate. As fast as 

 this oily part is collected on the surface of the 

 water, it is taken off, and boiled over a quick 

 fire. This animal oil, called manteca de tor- 

 tugas % keeps the better, it is said, in propor- 

 tion as it has undergone a stronger ebullition. 

 When well prepared, it is limpid, inodorous, and 

 scarcely yellow. The missionaries compare it 

 to the best oil of olives ; and it is used not 

 merely to burn in lamps, but in dressing victuals, 

 to which it imparts no disagreeable taste. It is 

 not easy, however, to procure oil of turtles' eggs 

 quite pure. It has generally a putrid smell, 

 owing to the mixture of eggs, in which, from the 

 prolonged action of the Sun, little tortoises, los 

 tortuguillos, are already formed. We felt this 

 very disagreeably at our return from the Rio 

 Negro, on employing a fluid fat, which had 

 become brown and fetid. Fibrous matter was 

 found collected at the bottom of the vessel ^ a 

 sign of the impurity of the tortoise-oil. 



I acquired some general statistical notions 

 on the spot, by consulting the missionary of 

 Uruana, his lieutenant, and the traders of An- 



* Tortoise grease. The Tamanack Indians call it by the 

 name of carapa ; the Maypures, by the name oftimL 



