THE AMAZON DISTRICT. 
465 
In the month of September, as soon as the sand- 
banks begin to be uncovered, the females deposit their 
eggs, scraping hollows of a considerable depth, covering 
them over carefully, smoothing and beating down the 
sand, and then walking across and across the place in 
various directions for the purpose of concealment. There 
are such numbers of them, that some beaches are almost 
one mass of eggs beneath the surface, and here the In- 
dians come to make oil. A canoe is filled with the eggs, 
which are all broken and mashed up together. The oil 
rises to the top, and is skimmed off and boiled, when 
it will keep, and is used both for light and for cook- 
ing. Millions of eggs are thus annually destroyed, and 
the turtles have already become scarce in consequence. 
There are some extensive beaches which yield two 
thousand pots of oil annually ; each pot contains five 
gallons, and requires about two thousand five hundred 
eggs, which would give five millions of eggs destroyed in 
one locality. 
But of those that remain, a very small portion only 
can arrive at maturity. When the young turtles issue 
from the egg, and run to the water, many enemies are 
awaiting them. Great alligators open their jaws and 
swallow them by hundreds ; the jaguars from the forest 
come and feed upon them ; eagles and buzzards, and 
the great wood ibises attend the feast ; and when they 
have escaped all these, there are many ravenous fishes 
which seize them in the stream. 
The Indians catch the full-grown turtles, either with 
the hook, net, or arrow. The last is the most ingenious 
method, and requires the most skill. The turtle never 
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