CONaEEOATlOK CO? TILE KAIiVES. 
191 
a nd^ sixty-five thousand quintals, must lay thirty-three 
pillions of eggs on the three shores where this harvest 
ls gathered. The results of these calculations are much 
oeiow the truth. Many tortoises lay only sixty or seventy 
V'§g8 ; and a great number of these animals are devoured by 
Jaguars at the moment they emerge from the water. The 
Indians bring away a great number of eggs to cat them 
utied in the sun; and they break a considerable number 
hrougfi carelessness dining the gathering. The number of 
v 3g$ that are hatched before the people can dig them up is 
?? prodigious, that near the encampment of Uruana I saw 
do whole shore of the Orinoco swarming with little tor- 
ses. an inch in diameter, escaping with difficulty from the 
Pursuit of the Indian children. It' to those considerations 
0 added, that all the arraus do not assemble on tho three 
‘ lores of the encampments ; and that there are many which 
y then- eggs in solitude, and some weeks later,* between 
ae mouth of the Orinoco and the confluence of the Apure; 
must admit that the number of turtles which annually 
e Posit their eggs on the hanks of the Lower Orinoco, is 
’-ar a million. This number is very great for so large an 
j j 'unal. In general large animals multiply less considerably 
smaller ones. 
( dhe labour of collecting the eggs, and preparing tlie oil, 
'l cc Upies three weeks. It is at this period only that the mis- 
•°^ries have any communication with the coast and the 
wt neighbouring countries. The Franciscan monks 
e 0 live south of tho cataracts, come to the ‘ harvest of 
f.^ s ^less to procure oil, than to see, as they say, ‘white 
0l , e ^> and to learn whether the king inhabits the Escurial 
hi t? tldefonso, whether convents are still suppressed 
ra uee, and above all, whether the Turks continue to 
P fluiet. On these subjects, (the only ones interesting 
* r pi ^ 
(lb r ar/ ‘ autt i which lay their eggs before the begiuniug of March, 
*°od, • bf Satae species the more or less frequent basking in the sun, the 
Prices tIie P ecu * iar organization of each individual, occasion differ- 
^ e btua c ° me °nt of the water with the terekays , which lay in January and 
*bl e x.o\.' ^ a ther Gumilla believes them to be arraus that were not 
°f t! )e / eggs the preceding year. It is difficult to find the eggs 
*»n th e f re * a #*P because these animals, far from collecting in thousands 
Sarne beach, deposit their eggs as tliey are scattered about. 
