ushed
to the edge, and were heard plunging by hundreds into the water.

Guapo's ear caught the sounds, and his eye now ranging along the sandy
shore, took in at a glance the whole thing.

"Carapas," he said laconically.

"Carapas?" inquired Leon.

"Oh!" said Don Pablo, who understood him. "Turtles is it?"

"Yes, master," replied Guapo. "This is, I suppose, one of their great
hatching-places. They are going to lay their eggs somewhere in the sand
above. They do so every year."

There was no danger from the turtles, as Guapo assured everybody, but
the fright had chased away sleep, and they all lay awake for some time
listening to Guapo's account of these singular creatures, which we shall
translate into our own phraseology.

These large turtles, which in other parts of South America are called
"arraus," or simply "tortugas," assemble every year in large armies,
from all parts of the river. Each one of these armies chooses for
itself a place to breed--some sandy island, or great sand-bank. This
they approach very cautiously--lying near it for some days, and
reconnoitring it with only their heads above the water. They then crawl
ashore at night in vast multitudes--just as the party saw them--and each
turtle, with the strong crooked claws of her hind feet, digs a hole for
herself in the sand. These holes are three feet in diameter and two
deep. In this she deposits her eggs--from seventy to one hundred and
twenty of them--each egg being white, hard-shelled, and between the size
of a pigeon's and pullet's. She then covers the whole with sand,
levelling it over the top so that it may look like the rest of the
surface, and so that the precious treasure may not be found by vultures,
jaguars, and other predatory creatures. When this is done the labour of
the turtle is at an end. The great army again betakes itself to the
water, and scatters in _every_ direction. The sun acting upon the hot
sand does the rest; and in less than six weeks the young turtles, about
an inch in diameter, crawl out of the sand, and at once make for the
water. They are afterwards seen in pools and lakes, where the water is
shallow, far from the place where they have been hatched; and it is well
known that the first years of their life are not spent in the bed of the
great river. How they find these pools, or whether the mothers
distinguish their own young and conduct them thither, as the crocodiles
and alligators do, is a mystery.