HARVEST OF Tl RTLE-EGOS. 
185 
lad given rise among the Whites. The missionary invited 
Gs to partake a frugal repast of fish and plantains. He told 
us that he had come to encamp with the Indians during 
the time of the ‘ harvest of eggs,’ “to celebrate mass every 
morning in the open air, to procure the oil necessary for the 
church-lamps, and especially to govern this mixed republic 
(republica de Indios y Castellanos) in which every one 
wished to profit singly by what God had granted to all.” 
We made the tour of the island, accompanied by the 
missionary and by a pulpero, who boasted of having, for ten 
successive years, visited the camp of the Indians, and at- 
tended the turtle-fishery. We were on a plain of sand per- 
fectly smooth ; and were told that, as tar as we could see 
along the beach, turtles’ eggs were concealed under a layer 
of earth. The missionary carried a long pole in his hand, 
fie showed us, that by means of this pole, the extent of the 
stratum of eggs could be determined as accurately as the 
miner determines the limits of a bed of marl, of bog iron- 
0re , or of coal. On tlirnsting the rod perpendicularly into 
the ground, the sudden want of resistance shows that the 
e avity or layer of loose earth containing the eggs, has been 
re aclied. We saw that the stratum is generally spread with 
80 much uniformity, that the pole finds it everywhere in a 
r adiu 8 of ten toises around any given spot. Here they talk 
c °ntum a ny of square perches of eggs ; it is like a mining- 
c °uutry, divided into lots, and worked with the great- 
es t regularity. The stratum of eggs, however, is far from 
covering the' whole island: they arc not found wherever the 
pound rises abruptly, because the turtle cannot mount 
heights. I related to my guides the emphatic description 
Sj .Father Gumilla, who asserts, that the shores of the 
yminoco contain fewer grains of saud than the river con- 
mins turtles ; and that these animals would prevent vessels 
r °m advancing, if men and tigers did not annually destroy 
80 great a number.* “Son cuentos de f, miles” “they are 
It would be as difficult to count the grains of sand on the shores of 
Orinoco, as to count the immense number of tortoises which inhabit 
1 8 . ma rgins and waters. Were it not for the vast consumption of tor- 
° l8es and their eggs, the river Orinoco, despite its great magnitude, 
°uld be unnavigable, for vessels would be impeded by the enormoui 
. litude of the tortoises.” — Gumilla, Orinoco Illustrata, vol. i. pp. 
