9 6 
TORTOISES AND TURTLES. 
in the Orinoco, hence known as the Boca de la Tortuga; and according to native 
accounts, no other spot is to be met with on the river from its mouth to its 
junction with the Apure, where eggs can be found in abundance. On the island 
in question, the number of eggs deposited is enormous; a large stretch of smooth 
sandy beach being underlain with an almost continuous layer. To determine the 
position and extent of the deposit, a long pole is thrust down at intervals into the 
sand; the sudden want of resistance to its descent proclaiming when the loose 
layer containing the eggs has been reached. According to measurements taken by 
Humboldt, the stratum extended to a distance of one hundred and twenty feet from 
the water, and averaged three feet in depth. The whole is regularly parcelled out 
among the Indians, who proceed to work the layer with the regularity of miners. 
The earth having been removed, the eggs are carried in small baskets to the 
neighbouring encampment, where they are thrown into long wooden troughs of 
water. Here they are broken and stirred up with shovels, and the mass then left 
in the sun till all the oily matter has collected at the surface, whence it is 
continually ladled off, and taken off to be boiled over a quick fire. The result of 
this process is a limpid, inodorous, and scarcely yellow substance, known as “ turtle- 
butter,” which can be used for much the same purposes as olive-oil. In spite of 
the enormous quantity of eggs thus taken, numbers are hatched, and Humboldt 
saw the whole bank of the Orinoco swarming with small tortoises of an inch in 
diameter, that escaped only with difficulty from the pursuit of the Indian children. 
All these tortoises are vegetable feeders; and the females greatly exceed the males in 
size. On the upper Amazon the large species, according to Bates, is captured either 
by means of nets or by shooting with arrows. On such occasions, after the net is 
set in a semicircular form at one extremity of a pool, the rest of the party spread 
themselves around the swamp at the opposite end, and begin to beat with poles in 
order to drive the tortoises towards the middle. This process on the occasion 
referred to “ was continued for an hour or more, the beaters gradually drawing 
nearer to each other, and driving the hosts of animals before them; the number of 
little snouts constantly popping above the surface of the water showing that all 
was going on well. When they neared the net, the men moved more quickly, 
shouting and beating with great vigour. The ends of the net were then seized by 
several strong hands and dragged suddenly forwards, bringing them at the same 
time together, so as to enclose all the booty in a circle. Every man now leapt into 
the enclosure, the boats were brought up, and the turtles easily captured by the 
hand and tossed into them.” Altogether, about eighty individuals were captured 
in the course of twenty minutes or so. In shooting tortoises, the arrow employed 
has a strong lancet-shaped steel point, fitted to a peg which enters the tip of the 
shaft. To the latter the peg is secured by a hank of twine some thirty or forty 
yards in length, and neatly wound round the body of the arrow. When a tortoise 
is struck, the peg drops out from the shaft, and is carried down by the diving- 
animal, leaving the latter floating on the surface. Thereupon the sportsman 
paddles up to the arrow, and proceeds to “ play ” his victim until it can be drawn 
near to the surface, when it is struck with a second arrow, after which, by the aid 
of the two cords, it can be safely drawn ashore. In many villages on the Amazon 
every house has a pond, in which a number of these tortoises are kept for food. 
