"The arrow used in turtle-shooting has a strong lancet-shaped steel point fitted into a peg, which enters the tip of the shaft. The peg is secured to the shaft by twine, being some thirty or forty yards in length, and neatly wound round the body of the arrow. When the missile enters the shell the peg drops out, and the pierced animal descends with it towards the bottom, leaving the shaft floating on the surface. This being done the sportsman paddles in his canoe to the place, and gently draws the animal by the twine, humouring it by giving it the rein when it plunges, until it is brought again near the surface, when he strikes it with a second arrow. With the increased hold given by the two cords he has then no difficulty in landing his game.
"By mid-day the men had shot about a score of nearly full-grown turtles. Cardozo then gave orders to spread the net.... Three boat loads, or about eighty, were secured in about twenty minutes. They were then taken ashore and each one secured by the men tying the legs with thongs of bast.
"When the canoes had been twice filled we desisted after a very hard day's work. Nearly all the animals were young ones, chiefly, according to the statement of Pedro, from three to ten years of age; they varied from 6 to 18 inches in length, and were very fat. Cardozo and I lived almost exclusively on them for several months afterwards. Roasted in the shell they form a most appetising dish. These younger turtles never migrate with their elders on the sinking of the waters, but remain in the tepid pools, fattening on fallen fruits, and, according to the natives, on the fine nutritious mud. We captured a few full-grown mother turtles, which were known at once by the horny skin of their breast plates being worn, telling of their having crawled on the sand to lay eggs the previous year. They had evidently made a mistake in not leaving the pool at the proper time, for they were full of eggs, which, we were told, they would, before the season was over, scatter in despair over the swamp. We also found several male turtles, or capitaris, as they are called by the natives. These are immensely less numerous than the females, and are distinguishable by their much smaller size, more circular shape, and the greater length and thickness of their tails. Their flesh is considered unwholesome, especially to sick people having external signs of inflammation."
The most recent account of these water tortoises is that published by Dr. Goeldi from the MS. of João Martins da Silva Continho, a former resident at Manáos on the Middle Amazon. The "Tartaruga" (the Portuguese name for turtles) live from January to July in the inundated, quiet backwaters of the forest-region, feeding upon the various seeds of palms as these ripen and drop successively; rarely, and only when hard up, they are carnivorous. The creatures hide under water below the trees, when they are espied by the Indians, who dive down to a depth of twenty and more feet to catch them in their arms. The civilised Indians use a steel-pointed lance of hard wood, about 10 feet in length. A string connects the point with the shaft around which it is wound. When stuck into the tortoise the shaft and point part; the string is either tied to the boat or to a little float of light wood. In other districts an arrow with a string is employed.
In August, when the water subsides, the tortoises return to the rivers, and the entrance of the lagoon is closed with nets. A number of boats with long poles drive them with much noise towards the entrance. On their way to the rivers the tortoises always go up-stream, and this is called the "arribaçaõ das tartarugas," the ascent of the turtles. The fishermen post themselves at shallow spots or on sand-banks, and wait for the creatures which come up to find a place for landing and laying. The arrows employed are called sararaca, i.e. a thing which can be disjointed; they are about 4 feet long, and consist of a gomo or internodium of wood 9 inches long with a one- or two-barbed steel point, and the shaft into which the gomo fits loosely. The gomo is, moreover, connected with the shaft by a string made of palm-fibres about 30 feet in length, partly wound round the shaft, which ultimately acts as a float.
The laying takes place from the end of September into October. Some of the parents seem to reconnoitre on land for a few days. As a rule only females do this, and the natives say that they are led by a "mestra." The laying takes place early in the morning. The number of females is so great that they often block the way of the boats, and make a great noise by knocking against their neighbours' shells. Each digs a hole about 18 inches or 2 feet deep, and lays from 80 to 200 eggs. Sometimes the laying individual is entirely buried by its neighbours which are scraping their own holes.
In some districts the eggs are wanted for "manteiga" (Portuguese for butter); and the turning over, or viraçaõ of the tortoises takes place later. In other districts they are caught before the eggs are laid, and this barbaric and destructive custom was formerly forbidden by the people themselves. Although the provincial assembly tried to reinstitute the old reasonable customs, the inspectors are often got over by bribery.
There are two ways of extracting the oil from the eggs. To get the thick oil used, mixed with tar, for shipbuilding, caulking, etc., the eggs are heaped up for five days and then worked. The fluid oil for lighting is made from fresh eggs, which are put into a boat and then trampled out with the feet. The oil is drawn off into large earthen jars and put on the fire. Then it is rapidly cooled. The best oil, used for frying fish, is that which is gained from the roasted tortoises themselves. Fresh eggs are either fried or taken with sugar, or mixed with manioca-flour and water. The young, which are hatched in January, are likewise eaten fried, or they are preserved in the fat of the parents.
An average tortoise yields 5 lbs. of fat, costing on the spot two milreis. The whole full-grown animal, of one yard in length, costs the same, and its meat is sufficient to sustain a family of six people for three days. To make 24 lbs. of oil requires 3000 eggs. Two or three tortoises would yield the same amount from their fat. Consequently the destruction of the eggs causes an enormous waste, and is after all the least economical procedure. In the year 1719, 192,000 lbs. were exported from the Alto Amazonas, representing 24,000,000 eggs. In 1700 there were still plenty of tortoises 50 leagues above the mouth of the Para river. Now there is no assembly of more than fifteen tortoises to be found anywhere within 300 leagues from Para to the mouth of the Rio Negro. On the Rio Madeira, from the mouth to the first cataract, 186 leagues distance, there are now only two regular nesting localities. The upper Solimoes and the Rio Yapura are still rich. Near Ega are regular tortoise-ponds, called "curral," which yield sufficient support to their owners; the animals are fed with manioca-flour and leguminous plants.
Fam. 2. Chelydidae.–The neck bends under the margin of the carapace, but remains partly exposed. The nuchal shield is absent except in two Northern Australian species. There are twelve pairs of marginal shields. The plastron is composed of nine plates, and is covered with thirteen shields, one of which is the conspicuous intergular. The temporal region of the skull shows great diversity. It is quite open in Chelodina, covered in by broad expansions of the parietal bones in Platemys, Emydura, and Elseya, or bridged over by a parieto-squamosal arch, which is very slender in Rhinemys, strong in Chelys and Hydraspis. The palatine bones are separated by the vomer; the nasals are variable, mostly present, but the prefrontals are always small, and separated by the frontals. The fifth and eighth cervical vertebrae are biconvex.