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



211 



feeding sometimes on land-turtle, sometimes on sea-turtle, the'-e 

 being plenty of either sort ; but the land-turtle, as they exceed 

 in sweetness, so do they in numbers ; it is incredible to report 

 how numerous they are." 



The French Captain, de Beauchesne, visited these islands in 

 June, 1700, but his account is said to add nothing to the his- 

 tory of the land tortoises. 



The best of the earlier accounts of the tortoises is that of 

 Woodes Rogers, who was in the Galapagos Archipelago in Sep- 

 tember, 1707. I quote as follows : 



"Some of the largest of the land-turtles are about 100 pounds 

 weight, and those of the sea upwards of 400. The land-turtles 

 laid eggs on our deck. Our men brought some from the shore 

 about the bigness of a goose egg, white, with a large big shell, 

 exactly round. The creatures are the ugliest in Nature, the 

 shell not unlike the top of an old hackney-coach, as black as jet ; 

 and so is the outside skin, but shriveled and very rough. The 

 legs and necks are very long, and about the bigness of a man's 

 wrist; and they have club-feet, as big as one's fist, shaped 

 much like those of an elephant, with five thick nails on the 

 fore-foot and but four behind, and the head little, and visage 

 small like snakes, and look very old and bleak. When at first 

 surprised they shrink their neck, head, and legs under their 

 shell. Two of our men, with Lieutenant Stratton and the 

 trumpeter of the Duchess, affirm they saw vast large ones of 

 this sort, about four feet high. They mounted two men on 

 the back of one of them, which, with its usual slow pace, car- 

 ried them and never regarded the weight. They supposed this 

 could not weigh less than 700 pounds. I do not affect giving 

 relations of strange creatures so frequently done by others; 

 but when an uncommon creature falls in my way, I cannot 

 omit it. The Spaniards tell us, they know of none elsewhere in 

 these seas, but they are common in Brazil." 



Different islands were visited by Rogers. He continues : 



'T saw no sort of beast, but there are guanos [iguanas] in 

 abundance, and land-turtles almost on every island. It is 

 strange how the latter got here, because they cannot come of 

 themselves, and none of that sort are found on the main." 



In 1720, Clipperton was for ten days in these islands. Van- 

 couver, who determined the position of some in 1795, did not 

 Sfo to land. 



