Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 2 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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Estimating At One Hundred, Or One Hundred And
Sixteen, The Number Of Eggs That One Tortoise Produces, And Reckoning
That
One third of these is broken at the time of laying, particularly
by the mad tortoises, we may presume that,
To obtain annually five
thousand jars of oil, three hundred and thirty thousand arrau
tortoises, the weight of which amounts to one hundred and sixty-five
thousand quintals, must lay thirty-three millions of eggs on the three
shores where this harvest is gathered. The results of these
calculations are much below the truth. Many tortoises lay only sixty
or seventy eggs; 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 eat them dried in the sun; and they
break a considerable number through carelessness during the gathering.
The number of eggs that are hatched before the people can dig them up
is so prodigious, that near the encampment of Uruana I saw the whole
shore of the Orinoco swarming with little tortoises an inch in
diameter, escaping with difficulty from the pursuit of the Indian
children. If to these considerations be added, that all the arraus do
not assemble on the three shores of the encampments; and that there
are many which lay their eggs in solitude, and some weeks later,*
between the mouth of the Orinoco and the confluence of the Apure; we
must admit that the number of turtles which annually deposit their
eggs on the banks of the Lower Orinoco, is near a million. (* The
arraus, which lay their eggs before the beginning of March, (for in
the same species the more or less frequent basking in the sun, the
food, and the peculiar organization of each individual, occasion
differences,) come out of the water with the terekays, which lay in
January and February. Father Gumilla believes them to be arraus that
were not able to lay their eggs the preceding year. It is difficult to
find the eggs of the terekays, because these animals, far from
collecting in thousands on the same beach, deposit their eggs as they
are scattered about.) This number is very great for so large an
animal. In general large animals multiply less considerably than the
smaller ones.
The labour of collecting the eggs, and preparing the oil, occupies
three weeks. It is at this period only that the missionaries have any
communication with the coast and the civilized neighbouring countries.
The Franciscan monks who live south of the cataracts, come to the
harvest of eggs less to procure oil, than to see, as they say, white
faces; and to learn whether the king inhabits the Escurial or San
Ildefonso, whether convents are still suppressed in France, and above
all, whether the Turks continue to keep quiet. On these subjects, (the
only ones interesting to a monk of the Orinoco), the small traders of
Angostura, who visit the encampments, can give, unfortunately, no very
exact information.
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