170 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
ter-hole, and killing the tortoises there, the collector brings up 
a burro, throws a couple of sacks over the pack-saddle, and starts 
out to look for more tortoises, killing them wherever found. 
A few strokes of the machete separates the plastron from 
the body, and 10 minutes’ work will clear the fat from the 
sides. The fat is then thrown into the sack, and the outfit 
moves on. 
When the burro is well laden, man and beast travel back to 
camp, where the oil is tried out. Each large tortoise yields from 
one to three gallons of oil. The small ones are seldom killed, 
because they have but little fat. By daily visits to the few water- 
holes during the driest season, in the course of a month the 
hunters get practically all the tortoises that live on the upper 
part of the mountain. 
When we first stepped ashore at the settlement we saw a num- 
ber of casks lying on the beach, and learned on inquiry that they 
contained 800 gallons of tortoise oil. In a large boat, under a 
nearby shed, were 400 gallons more. While we were there the 
boat sailing between the island and Guayaquil left for that port 
with those casks and a cargo of hides. The value of the oil 
in Guayaquil was about $9.00 (American) per 100 pounds. 
While the tortoises are as plentiful as we saw them, this price 
yields a fair profit to the hunters, but two more raids such as 
that shown in the photograph will clear that mountain of all the 
fair-sized tortoises upon it, and then the oil business is ended. 
The photograph of seven tortoises at a pond was taken ten 
miles from the ranch at 3,500 feet elevation, where the hunters 
had not yet been, but soon these will be discovered and go the 
way of the rest. Those that the hunters overlook will be killed 
by the wild dogs as soon as the cattle are decimated. Between 
men and dogs the creatures that live on the ground must soon 
disappear. On the northern end of the island the land iguanas 
have been exterminated, although they were much more numer- 
ous and better able to escape than are the tortoises. Near Tagus 
Cove, the best harbor in the northern part of the island, situated 
at the foot of another large mountain of volcanic origin, there 
were formerly, if the number of trails can be taken as a criterion, 
hundreds of tortoises. To-day it is a hard matter to find one, 
for it appears that this species (Testudo microphes) has been 
used as food for whalers more than any other. 
Quite a large valley extends along the southern base of the 
mountain, near Tagus Cove, and here the tortoises were in the 
habit of coming every rainy season when the grass was young 
