Vol. II, Pt. I] VAN DENBURGH— GALAPAGOS TORTOISES 215 



During the War of 1812, Captain, afterward Admiral, 

 Porter of the United States navy, spent some time in the 

 Galapagos Archipelago. He has given, in his Journal of a 

 Cruise Made to the Pacific Coast, the most complete of the 

 earlier accounts of these tortoises. It was he who first called 

 attention to differences existing between the tortoises of the 

 different islands. Tortoises were found in greater or less 

 abundance in all the larger islands of the group which he 

 visited, viz. : Hood, Marlborough, James, Charles, and Inde- 

 fatigable (Porter's) islands. On Chatham Island, where he 

 made a short stay, a few of their shells and bones were seen, 

 but they appeared to have been long dead; and on Albemarle 

 Island, the largest of the group, none was observed by him, 

 evidently because he landed here only a few hours on the south- 

 western point. Abingdon, Bindloe, Downe, and Barrington 

 islands were not visited by him. Some of the tortoises cap- 

 tured weighed from 300 to 400 pounds. On Indefatigable 

 Island land tortoises were in the greatest abundance, of an 

 enormous size, one of which measured five feet and a half long, 

 four feet and a half wide, and three feet thick, and others were 

 found by some of the seamen of larger size. On Hood Island 

 he obtained tortoises in great numbers. On another visit he 

 could not procure more than fifty tortoises, and they were 

 small, but "of a quality far superior to those found on James 

 Island." In regard to Charles Island he says : 



"It abounds with tortoises, which frequent the springs for 

 the sake of the water, and upwards of thirty of them were 

 turned on their backs by us, as they came down to drink, 

 during the short time we remained there, which was not more 

 than an hour and a half. But we were enabled to bring down 

 only one, and he was selected more for his antiquated appear- 

 ance than for his size or supposed excellence. His weight was 

 exactly one hundred and ninety-seven pounds, but he was far 

 from being considered a large size. Later, between four and 

 five hundred were taken on board. They were brought the dis- 

 tance of from three to four miles, through thorns and over 

 sharp rocks, yet it was no uncommon thing for them to make 

 three and four trips a day, each with tortoises weighing from 

 fifty to a hundred weight. 



