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back into the interior, and, finding trails, looked around till I found the tortoise. 

 Several trails led around to different cactus trees ; and the next day six of ns went 

 up and sjient the day lookiiii; for more tortoise, liut none were fonnd, thonj;h the 

 ground was well searched. I went half the way to the centre of the island, but 

 it became rougher as I got farther in, and at one o'clock I came to the conclusion 

 that no tortoise were on this side. Near the Seymours there is some soil where 

 tortoise might occur, thongli none were fonnd nor any signs, either there or at 

 Gordon Rocks. We were also ashore at several jioints between Conway Bay and 

 the S.W. side, and found no traces of tortoise. It is ([uite possible there may 

 be some in the interior, bnt it would take two or three days to bring a tortoise to 

 the shore if the south side is as rocky as the north side of the island. 



With the calm weather and strong variable currents tljat we encountered around 

 Albemarle and 'Narbdrough, it wonid have been impossible to lay-to near Ignana 

 Cove, so we had to jiass by the home of the largest tortoise. At Tagns Cove the 

 Stanford boys had seen one or two tortoise in 'OS, and we bad seen signs of them 

 in 'i)T. This year we made a thorough search of all the likely ground, and 

 succeeded in getting three, all widely scattered. I think there was one other whose 

 trail we found, but could not find the animal, even after much searching. AVe 

 found the first large one in a patch of brushwood at the foot of the mountain. 

 He was resting under a bush, and was left .alone, as the twn of us who found 

 him could not carry him. 



The next day four nl' us went back, and found he had gone several hundred 

 yards back and forth, tacking and zigzagging, and finally stopjiing under a very 

 thick dry bush, where only his breathing revealed his j)resence. We tried to carry 

 him alive, but gave it up as a bad job, and decided to skin him on the spot. 

 Leaving tiie boys to do this, 1 crossed a piece of lava to examine a valley some 

 distance away. By merest accident I iia])])ened to come out at an ojjening, through 

 whi<h I had proceeded but a sliort way when I noticed a little trail, and following 

 a short distance, discovered the author, a beautiful little tortoise. His shell was 

 clean and bright, and the scales on the legs and markings on the back very distinct. 

 He was close to the lava, and would very likely have been missed had we followed 

 up the usual trail to this valley. Several good trails of tortoise were found here, 

 and the jiath where they came from and went into the hills discovered. It was a 

 narrow jiassage, about twenty feet wide at one jilacc, between tiio fiehis of black 

 lava. One of the two land iguanas taken on Albemarle I fonnd in this narrow 

 place, where dogs or cats frequently passed b}*. Though I followed u]) into the 

 hills some distance, no fresh signs were seen, and the last tortoise had apparently 

 passed up a week or more before. This valley is probably where the whalers got 

 some of their fresh meat in years gone by, as it is fairly good walking from the 

 watering-place, though about three miles distant. One or two decayed skeletons 

 were seen, but it probably takes only a very few years for all traces of a deail 

 tortoise to disappear, judging by what we saw on Duncan, Albemarle, and 

 Abingdon. 



The next day two of us struck across the lava to the north, where a jiutch of 

 brushwood stretched down from the hills on to the plain. Here we discovered 

 old signs of tortoise, and close to the foot of the hill we found the tinrd tortoise 

 busily feeding on the tender grass which was beginning to sprout. We went liji 

 the mountain side quite a way, but found no recent traces, though a few bones of 

 a skeleton were seen, and old trails up iuul down the hill sliowed where the tortoise 



