52 
THE AMAZON AND MADEIRA RIVERS. 
Madeira, about 2,000 ja.rs {potes) arc amnrally filled witb turtle-butter. 
For each, jar about 2,000 eggs are requii’cd. Thus 4,000,000 eggs, on a 
moderate calculation, ai-e destroyed every year. Besides which, three or 
four thousand female turtles are caught in the laying-season at the 
Praia de Tamandua alone, as every Soringueii’o takes a few hundred 
away to keep them as Uve stock ; and, finally, as if such a destruction 
Avere not enough, none of the canoes passing there at the right season 
Avill omit the ojqiortunity of searching the shoal for newly-hatched 
turtles of fiA'o or six centimetres length, which are reckoned great 
delicacies ; so tliat comparatively few mil come to full groA?th. 
Now, considering that on the Soliraoes and its tributaries, the 
Punis, Teffe, &c., a similar process is going on, it can be easily 
understood why these animals, in spite of their enormous productive- 
ness (a turtle lays from one to two hundred eggs), have sensibly 
decreased in number \rithin the last fiAm or six years, and that, hence- 
forth, they must necessarily decrease in the ratio of geometrical pro- 
gression.* A few years ago a good-sized tartaruga of about one metre’s 
length, one metre broad, and thirty-six to forty centimetres thick, equal 
to the proAusion of a good dinner for fifteen persons, could easily be 
purchased at Mandos for tAVo mdreis, f Avhereas noAvadays it is very often 
uot to be had at five. 
The tartaruga is hunted, like the other species, even out of the 
laying-season, Avith bow and arroAV, called sararaca, especially adapted for 
the purpose. The arroAv’s iron point is loosely stuck into the shaft, and 
fastened to it by a long, thin string of pineapple fibre (caraua), Avhich 
unrolls AA'hen the Avounded animal suddenly dives, bearing aAvay the 
inserted Aveaimn. The shaft swimming on the surface indicates the exact 
spot, and is taken up by the fisherman, Avho thus hauls his prey easily up 
by means of the caraua-string. As soon as it appears above Avater, it is 
finished by a blow Avith a heavy harpoon, and put into the boat, which 
not seldom is upset in the efforts of the imnate of the tiny craft to secm-c 
his prize. 
* The different species living on the Amazon and its influents ai-e: — 1. The 
Tartaruga, the largest of all ; the male is caUod Cajutary. 2. The Cabe 9 uda (the big- 
headed). 3. The Ktia (Emys Pitia). 4. The Tracaja (Emys Tracaja : iSpix), consider- 
ably smaller than the fowner. 5. The Mnta-mata (Cholys flmbriata : Spix), with two 
deep furrows on the back. By far the most important of them for the population is 
the Tartaruga. 
f One niilrc'i= about tlu'eo shillings. 
