Chap. IV, 
TRACAJA FISHING. 
253 
I spent the morning of the 27th collecting insects in 
the woods of Shimuni ; assisting my friend in the after- 
noon to beat a large pool for Tracajas, Cardozo wishing 
to obtain a supply for his table at home. The pool was 
nearly a mile long, and lay on one side of the island 
between the forest and the sand-bank. The sands are 
heaped up very curiously around the margins of these 
isolated sheets of water ; in the present case they 
formed a steeply-inclined bank, from five to eight feet 
in height. What may be the cause of this formation 
I cannot imagine. The pools always contain a quan- 
tity of imprisoned fish, turtles, tracajas, and Aiyussas."^ 
The turtles and Aiyussas crawl out voluntarily in the 
course of a few days, and escape to the main river, but 
the Tracajas remain and become an easy prey to the 
natives. The ordinary mode of obtaining them is to 
whip the water in every part with rods for several 
hours during the day ; this treatment having the effect 
of driving the animals out. They wait, however, until 
the night following the beating before making their 
exit. Our Indians were occupied for many hours in 
this work, and when night came they and the sentinels 
were placed at intervals along the edge of the water to 
be ready to capture the runaways. Cardozo and I, after 
supper, went and took our station at one end of the 
pool. 
We did not succeed, after all our trouble, in getting 
many Tracajas. This was partly owing to the intense 
darkness of the night, and partly, doubtless, to the 
* Specimens of this species of turtle are named in the British 
Museum collection, Podocnemis expansa. 
