Page:The naturalist on the River Amazons 1863 v2.djvu/261

 from the town), all of which are visited annually by the Ega people for the purpose of collecting eggs and extracting oil from their yolks. Each has its commander, whose business is to make arrangements for securing to every inhabitant an equal chance in the egg harvest by placing sentinels to protect the turtles whilst laying, and so forth. The pregnant turtles descend from the interior pools to the main river in July and August, before the outlets dry up, and then seek in countless swarms their favourite sand-islands; for it is only a few praias that are selected by them out of the great number existing. The young animals remain in the pools throughout the dry season. These breeding places of turtles then lie twenty to thirty or more feet above the level of the river, and are accessible only by cutting roads through the dense forest.

We left Ega on our first trip, to visit the sentinels whilst the turtles were yet laying, on the 26th of September. Our canoe was a stoutly-built igarité, arranged for ten paddlers, and having a large arched toldo at the stern, under which three persons could sleep pretty comfortably. In passing down the narrow channel to the mouth of the Teffé, I noticed that the yellow waters of the Solimoens were flowing slowly inwards towards the lake, showing how much fuller and stronger, at this season, was the current of the main river than that of its tributary. On reaching the broad stream, we descended rapidly on the swift current to the south-eastern or lower end of the large wooded island of Bariá, which here divides the river into two great channels. The distance was about twelve miles: the island