wet months, till a fresh
supply can be procured in the dry season.

The tracaja, or smaller kind, which lays its eggs a month earlier than
the larger species, seldom lives, in captivity, beyond a few days.

The natives cook the turtles in various ways. The entrails make a
delicious soup, called _sarapatel_; while the flesh of the breast is
mixed with farina, and roasted in the breast shell over the fire.
Steaks, cooked with fat, make another dish; and large sausages, composed
of the thick-coated stomach, filled with mince-meat, and boiled, are
considered great delicacies. Bates, however, found, that though the
flesh is very tender, palatable, and wholesome, it becomes cloying after
a person has lived on it for some time; and he at length could not bear
the smell, even though suffering from hunger.

FISHING-NETS AND BASKETS.

The tribes on the River Uape's use several kinds of bows, some from five
to six feet long,--the arrows being still longer. The shaft is made of
the flower-stalk of the arrow-grass. The head is composed of hard wood
pointed, and sometimes armed with a serrated spine of the ray-fish,
covered thickly with poison, and notched, so as easily to break off--a
most deadly weapon. Their arrows for shooting fish are armed with iron
heads, while smaller arrows are used for shooting small game. These
alone have feathers at the base, generally from the wings of the macaw.
They are secured spirally, forming thus a little screw on the base of
the arrow, causing it to revolve rapidly, and assisting to keep it in a
direct course.

They employ also several sorts of hand-nets for catching fish: one is
very similar to the folding nets of entomologists, and another is like a
landing net. Rods and lines are generally used by them. They also
catch fish by means of a small conical-shaped wicker basket. The larger
end is completely open. Into this, which is placed in a current, the
fish enter, and swimming rapidly on, jam themselves into the narrow end,
where, unable to turn, they are completely secured. They also use large
cylindrical baskets, with reversed cones in the mouth like those of
lobster-pots, but of much greater size.

Fish are also caught by means of weirs. These are well built, supported
by strong posts. They are formed when the water is low. As the water
rises, the fish, keeping by the sides of the stream, are guided by the
side wings of the weir into its narrow opening, out of which they