llocks which indicated the places
where, that very night, each packet of eggs had been deposited in
the trench in groups of from one hundred and sixty to one hundred and
ninety. These there was no wish to get out. But an earlier laying had
taken place two months before, the eggs had hatched under the action
of the heat stored in the sand, and already several thousands of little
turtles were running about the beach.

The hunters were therefore in luck. The pirogue was filled with these
interesting amphibians, and they arrived just in time for breakfast. The
booty was divided between the passengers and crew of the jangada, and if
any lasted till the evening it did not last any longer.

In the morning of the 7th of July they were before San Jose de Matura,
a town situated near a small river filled up with long grass, and on the
borders of which a legend says that Indians with tails once existed.

In the morning of the 8th of July they caught sight of the village of
San Antonio, two or three little houses lost in the trees at the mouth
of the Ica, or Putumayo, which is about nine hundred meters wide.

The Putumayo is one of the most important affluents of the Amazon. Here
in the sixteenth century missions were founded by the Spaniards, which
were afterward destroyed by the Portuguese, and not a trace of them now
remains.

Representatives of different tribes of Indians are found in the
neighborhood, which are easily recognizable by the differences in their
tattoo marks.

The Ica is a body of water coming from the east of the Pasto Mountains
to the northeast of Quito, through the finest forests of wild
cacao-trees. Navigable for a distance of a hundred and forty leagues for
steamers of not greater draught than six feet, it may one day become one
of the chief waterways in the west of America.

The bad weather was at last met with. It did not show itself in
continual rains, but in frequent storms. These could not hinder the
progress of the raft, which offered little resistance to the wind. Its
great length rendered it almost insensible to the swell of the Amazon,
but during the torrential showers the Garral family had to keep indoors.
They had to occupy profitably these hours of leisure. They chatted
together, communicated their observations, and their tongues were seldom
idle.

It was under these circumstances that little by little Torres had begun
to take a more active part in the conversation. The details of his
ma