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the skin by slow stages across the broken land, and, watching for a smooth sea, 

 managed to get into the boat witliout mishap. A long pnll to the south, and we 

 reached the drifting vessel at dark. 



Seven days later we had reached Abingdon, sixty miles north, the wind and 

 calms having treated us as nsnal. I thought it not unlikely that there might be 

 tortoise on top of the island, on the south side of the ridge above Cape Chalmers. 

 In '117 we wont but half-way up the mountain, owing to thick liush and necessity of 

 being back by noon. We saw no signs there, and on the west side, where we 

 collected princixially, nearly to the toj), no evidences were found. Harvey and I 

 landed half a mile from the usual anchorage, at the foot of a blutf, which we managed 

 to surmount by careful climbing. This jilaced us a third of the way up the hill in 

 a short time. The others went on to the Cape, a mile fartlier, and the nearest jilace 

 to laud. We climbed fifty yards (over large boulders) from the water, and struck 

 a trail where the seal evidently came np to sun themselves ; but finding the trail 

 leading up through the weeds and rocks, we decided it must have been made by 

 a tortoise. Harvey struck around, and I struck np the slide to the foot of the blutf, 

 both of us finding recent signs. Around the front of the cliff, which a tortoise 

 could not climb, was a fresh trail ; and nji in a little nook close to the cliif was the 

 tortoise, eating away at the grass and weeds, as she searched for an exit from 

 her lean, lonely jiasture. I gave a start when I first saw her, for there was no 

 visible eye, the side of the head being scaled over ])erfectly. As 1 a])proached, the 

 head was turned, and an eye was found to be on one side of the head only. 

 Whether the fall which the animal probably took to arrive at the foot of 

 the clift' destroyed one eye, or if it was absent from birth, 1 do not know. This 

 tortoise was probably migrating to a lower level, as the nearest favourable ground 

 was at least half a mile higher, in a little valley where cacti and other food was 

 abundant. We tied np this fortunate find, and went on toward the top of the island. 

 The little flat or valley spoken of seemed an excellent place, and we searched it 

 thoroughly, but no tortoise signs were found. It is not unlikely that they nsed to 

 stay on this flat before the oil-hunters cleared the island of most of the tortoise. 



From here we went higher up, and came to a large slope covered with bunch 

 grass and brake ferns, over which the cold wind and fog swept till nearly noon every 

 day. This was too cold a place, so we went down into a valley on the Sduthern slope 

 of the highest peak, where conditions were ideal. Here we found bird life most 

 abundant. Tree cacti were common, but we searched a couple of hours before 

 finding a trail. We found where a tortoise had jiassed along a trail, and 

 then searched honrs more ; but the frequent rocks and thick weeds and bushes, 

 that the creature went under instead of over, obscured the track, so we were 

 forced to give it up in despair. There were evidences here that tortoise had 

 been common, for the rocks were worn in the trails and holes where the water 

 collected. In working back to Ca])e Chalmers, which was now north-east instead 

 of south-east, we came to a well-marked trail running down toward the shore. A 

 tortoise had passed down here but a few days before : this may have been the same 

 one we were trailing above, as it was a third of a mile higher and in the same 

 direction. We followed the trail rapidly, Harvey leading, while I wandered back 

 and forth looking for nests, and securing several, which delayed me some time. 

 At one place, where the trail went under a cactus, some fresh leaves had been eaten 

 that morning, and close by was the form where the tortoise had lain the night 

 before. Tliis was encouraging, and liallooing to Harvey, who was away ahead and 



