642 



THE TROPICAL WORLD. 



and highest part of the islets in the river, or about a hundred feet from the shore. The 

 Indians say it will lay only where itself was hatched out. With its hind flippers it digs 

 a hole two or three feet deep, and deposits in it from eighty to one hundred and sixty 

 eggs. These are covered with sand, and the next comer makes another deposit on 

 the top, and so on until the pit is full. The Indians are very expert in finding the 

 nests. Guided approximately by the tracks of the turtle, they thrust a stick into the 

 sand, and whenever it goes down easily they commence digging with their hands, and 

 invariably strike eggs. The turtles are caught for the table as they return to the river 

 after laying their eggs. To secure them it suffices to turn them over on their backs. 

 The turtles certainly have a hard time of it. Alligators and large fishes swallow the 

 young ones by hundreds ; jaguars pounce upon the full grown ones as they crawl over 

 the plains, and vultures and ibises attend the feast. But man is their most formidable 

 foe. The destruction of turtle life on the Amazon is incredible. It is calculated that 

 fifty millions of eggs are annually destroyed. Thousands of those that escape capture 

 in the egg are collected as soon as hatched, and devoured ; the remains of the yolk in 

 their entrails being considered a great delicacy. An unknown number of full-grown 

 turtles are eaten by the natives on the banks, while every steamer, schooner and canoe 

 that descends the Amazon is laden with turtles for the tables of Manaos, Santarera, 

 and Pard. When we consider also that all the mature turtles that are taken are 

 females, we wonder that the race is not well-nigh extinct. They are in fact rapidly 

 decreasing in numbers. A large turtle which twenty years ago could be bought for 

 fifty cents, now commands three dollars. One would suppose that the males being 

 unmolested, would far outnumber the other sex ; but they are in fact immensely less 

 numerous than the females." 



The marsh-tortoises may be said to form the connecting link between the eminently 

 aquatic marine, and river chelonians and the land-tortoises, as the formation of their 

 feet, armed with sharp claws or crooked nails, and furnished with a kind of flexible 

 web, connecting their distinct and movable toes, allows them both to advance much 

 quicker on the dry land than the latter, and to swim rapidly either on the surface or in 

 the depth of the waters. According to the more or less terrestrial habits of the vari- 

 ous species, the feet are more or less webbed, for in those that habitually remain on the 

 banks of the lagoons, the connecting membrane is confined to the basis of the toes, while 

 in others, that but rarely come on shore, it sometimes reaches to the extremity of the 

 claws, another beautiful example of the foresight of the Almighty in adapting organic 

 structure to the wants of His creatures. The marsh-tortoises, being endowed with 

 more rapid power of locomotion, are not vegetarians like the land-tortoises, but chiefly 

 live on mollusks, fishes, frogs, toads, and annelides. Although the eggs are palatable, 

 the flesh is generally too coarse even for the craving appetite of an Indian. 



Sea turtles difier in many respects from those of the rivers. During the Brazilian 

 summer (December, January, February), colossal turtles are seen everywhere swim- 

 ming about along the coast, raising their thick round heads above the water, and wait- 

 ing for the approach of night to land. The neighboring Indians are their bitterest 

 enemies, killing them whenever they can. Thus these dreary sand coasts, bounded on 

 one side by the ocean and on the other by gloomy primeval forests, ofifer on all sides 

 pictures of destruction, for the bones and shells of slaughtered turtles everywhere be- 

 strew the ground. Two parallel grooves indicate the path of the turtle after landing ; 



