Leon could explain himself,
those immediately around the fires and for some distance beyond rushed
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