250 LEAVES FROM THE 



differed widely from those of the great tortoises of the 

 Galapagos. They, as we have seen, delighted, after a 

 long abstinence probably, to plunge their heads into the 

 water and to wallow in mud. White's tortoise appears 

 to have lived in positive dread of the element. 



No part of its behaviour (writes White) ever struck me more 

 than the extreme timidity it always expresses with regard to rain ; 

 and though it has a shell that would secure it against a loaded cart, 

 yet does it discover as much solicitude about rain as a lady dressed 

 in all her best attire, shuffling away on the first sprinklings, and 

 running its head up in a corner. If attended to, it becomes an 

 excellent weather-glass ; for as sure as it walks elate, and as it were 

 on tiptoe, feeding with great earnestness in the morning, so sure 

 v>ill it rain before night. 



Darwin's great tortoises marched by night as well as 

 by day in their walks to the wells. White describes his 

 as totally a diurnal animal, and never pretending to stir 

 after it became dark : and yet he declares that nothing 

 could be more assiduous than the creature, night and day, 

 in scooping the earth and forcing its great body into the 

 cavity intended for its hybernaculum. This, however, it 

 must be remembered, was a work of necessity, in which 

 delay would have been dangerous. Beginning its exca- 

 vation on the first of November, it had no time to lose 

 with the biting frosts close at hand ; and if it had been 

 overtaken by them it would have suffered even more than 

 Captain Dalgetty, when he learned the rules of service 

 so tightly under old Sir Ludovick Lesly that he was not 

 likely to forget them in a hurry: — 



Sir, I have been made to stand guard eight hours, being from 

 twelve at noon to eight o'clock of the night, at the palace, armed 

 with back and breast, head-piece, and bracelets — being iron to the 

 teeth, in a bitter frost, and the ice was as hard as ever was flint ; 

 and all for stopping an instant to speak to my landlady, when I 

 should have gone to roll-call. 



White's tortoise was careful to avoid the other extreme 

 of temperature : — 



