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Show GALAPAGOS, ARCHIPELAGO. Oct. 1835. acts as a reservoir for the moisture necessary to its existe~ce : such seems to be the case with the tortoise. For some time after a visit to the springs, the urinary bladder of these am·m a1 s 1· s d1' s tended w1'th fluid , which is said gradu.a lly t.o decrease in volume, and to become less pure. The mha?ltants, when walking in the lower district, and overcome.~th thirst often take advantage of this circumstance, by k1llmg a tor:oise and if the bladder is full, drinking its contents. In one I :aw killed, the fluid was quite limpid, and had only a vety slightly bitter taste. The inh~bita~ts, ho';eve~, always drink first the water in the pencardmm, whiCh IS described as being best. . . The tortoises, when moving towards any defimte pomt, travel by night and day, and arrive at their journey's end much sooner than would be expected. The inhabitants, from observations on marked individuals, consider that they can move a distance of about eight miles in two or three days. One large tortoise, which I watched, I f?und ~alked at the rate of sixty yards in ten minutes, that 1s 360 m t~e hour, or four miles a day,-allowing also a little time for 1t to eat on the road. During the breeding season, when the male and female are together, the male utters a hoarse roar or bellowing, which it is said, can be heard at the distance of more than a hundred yards. The female never uses her voice, and ~he ~ale only at such times; so that when the people hear this nmse, they know the two are together. They were at this ~i~e (October) laying their eggs. The female, where the sml. IS sandy, deposits them together, and covers them up. w~th sand ; but where the ground is rocky she drops them mdlscriminately in any hollow. Mr. Bynoe found seven placed in a line in a fissure. The egg is white and spherical; one which I measured was seven inches and three-eighths in circumference. The young animals, as soon as they are hatched, fall a prey in great numbers to the buzzard, with the habits of the Caracara. The old ones seem generally Oct. 1835. TORTOISE. 465 to die from accidents, as from falling down precipices. At least several of the inhabitants told me, they had never found one dead without some such apparent cause. The inha?itants believe that these animals are absolutely deaf; certamly they do not overhear a person walking close behind them. I was always amused, when overtaking one of these great monsters as it was quietly pacing along, to see how suddenly, the instant I passed, it would draw in its head and legs, and uttering a deep hiss fall to the ground with a heavy sound, as if struck dead. I frequently got on their backs, and then, upon giving a few raps on the hinder part of the shell, they would rise up and walk away ;-but I found it very difficult to keep my balance. The flesh of this animal is largely employed, both fresh and salted; and a beautifully clear oil is prepared from the fat. When a tortoise is caught, the man makes a slit in the skin n~ar its tail, so as to see inside its body, whether the fat under the dorsal plate is thick. If it is not, the animal is liberated; and it is said to recover soon from this strange operation. In order to secure the tortoises, it is not sufficient to turn them like turtle, for they are often able to regain their upright position. It was confidently asserted, that the tortoises coming from different islands in the archipelago were slightly different in form ; and that in certain islands they attained a larger average size than in others. Mr. Lawson maintained that he could at once tell from which island any one was brought. Unfortunately, the specimens which came home in the Beagle were too small to institute any certain comparison. This tortoise, which goes by the name of Testudo Indicus, is at present found in many parts of the world. It is the opinion of Mr. Bell, and some others who have studied reptiles, that it is not improbable that they all originally came from this archipelago. When it is known how long these islands have been frequented by the bucaniers, and that they constantly took away numbers of these animals alive, it seems very probable that they should have distributed them in VOL, III. 2H |