With these last the thing is more
easy, as the crocodile-mothers deposit their eggs in separate places,
and each returns for her young when they are hatched, calls them by her
voice, and guides them to the pool where they are to remain until partly
grown. But among the thousands of little turtles hatched at one place
and time, and that seek the water all together, how would it be possible
for the turtle mother to distinguish her own young? Yet an old female
turtle is frequently seen swimming about with as many as a hundred
little ones after her! Now are these her own, or are they a collection
picked up out of the general progeny? That is an undetermined question.
It would seem impossible that each turtle-mother should know her own
young, yet amidst this apparent confusion there may be some maternal
instinct that guides her to distinguish her own offspring from all the
rest. Who can say?

It is not often, however, that the turtle is permitted to have offspring
at all. These creatures are annually robbed of their eggs in millions.
They have many enemies, but man is the chief. When a turtle
hatching-place is discovered, the Indians assemble, and as soon as all
the eggs have been deposited, they uncover and collect them. They eat
them--but that is not the principal use to which they are put. It is
for the making of oil, or "tortoise-butter," they are collected. The
eggs are thrown into a large trough or canoe, where they are broken up
with a wooden spade and stirred about for awhile. They then remain
exposed to the sun, until the oily part collects on the surface, which
is then skimmed off and well boiled. The "tortoise-butter" is now made,
and after being poured into earthen jars or bottles (_botijas_), it is
ready for market. The oil is clear, of a pale yellow colour, and some
regard it as equal to the best olive oil, both for lamps and for
cooking. Sometimes, however, it has a putrid smell, because many of the
eggs are already half hatched before the gathering takes place.

What would be the result were these eggs not gathered by the Indians?
Perhaps in the different rivers of South America more than an hundred
millions of them are deposited every year! In the Orinoco alone, in
three principal hatching-places it has been calculated that at least
thirty-three millions are annually destroyed for the making of
tortoise-butter! Fancy, then, one hundred millions of animals, each of
which grows to the weight o