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CALIFORMA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES [Peoc. 4th Ser. 



During the latter part of the seventeenth, the eighteenth, 

 and the earlier part of the nineteenth centuries, the Galapagos 

 Islands were visited at more or less frequent intervals by buc- 

 caneers, whalers, adventurers, w^ar-vessels, and others, in 

 search, often, of water and a supply of tortoises for food. To 

 these visits are due the earlier accounts of the tortoises of 

 these islands, as well as the specimens which, finding their way 

 into museums, have served as a basis for the original descrip- 

 tions of many species. It is difficult for us in these days of 

 rapid travel, when vessels are supplied with an endless variety 

 of canned foods, to appreciate the interest which the early 

 navigators, on their long, slow voyages, had in these animals, 

 which were easy of capture, could be stowed in numbers in 

 the hold of a vessel, kept for months without food, and were 

 used as needed to furnish an abundance of fresh meat. When 

 we are told that single vessels took on board at one time three 

 or four hundred tortoises, we cannot wonder that the number 

 remaining on the islands was rapidly reduced. 



It was especially toward the end of the seventeenth century 

 that the Galapagos Islands were visted by buccaneers. Their 

 accounts have been quoted by Baur and Giinther. Cowley, Wa- 

 fer, and Dampier have given accounts of these visits, and Cow- 

 ley published a map of the islands; The first visit, by Cowley, 

 Cooke, Dampier, and Edward Davis, was in 1684. Davis, 

 Wafer, Knight and Harris were there again the next year, and 

 in 1687 Davis and Wafer made a third visit. 



It is to Dampier that we owe the first account of the land 

 tortoises. He visited the Galapagos Islands several times, and 

 in his Nezv Voyage Round the World, published in 1697, 

 tells us : 



"The land-turtles are so numerous that five or six hundred 

 men might subsist on them alone for several months, without 

 any other sort of provision. They are extraordinary large 

 and fat, and so sweet that no pullet eats more pleasantly. One 

 of the largest of these creatures will weigh 150 or 200 weight, 

 and some of them are two foot, or two foot six inches, over the 

 callapee or belly." 



In a later edition of his Voyages Dampier states : 



"The oil saved from them was kept in jars, and used instead 

 of butter to eat with dough-boys or dumplings. We lay here 



