Vol. II, Pt. I] J'AN DENBURGH— GALAPAGOS TORTOISES 



209 



Turning now to the islands of the Pacific Ocean we find evi- 

 dence of the natural existence of land tortoises only in the 

 Galapagos Archipelago. 



The Galapagos Islands form a fairly compact group lying 

 under the equator, some five or six hundred miles west of the 

 coast of Ecuador. There are some twenty-four named islands, 

 and numerous islets and rocks. The principal islands are Albe- 

 marle, Indefatigable. Narborough, James, Chatham, Charles, 

 Hood, Bindloe, Abingdon, Barrington, Duncan, Tower and 

 Jervis. All are volcanic. There are said to be at least two 

 thousand craters, some of which, on the larger islands, are of 

 immense size, rising to a height of from three to four thousand 

 feet. A terrific eruption occurred on Narborough in 1825, but 

 no great volcanic activity has been reported in any of the 

 craters since 1835. 



"Considering that these islands are placed directly under 

 the equator, the climate is far from being excessively hot ; this 

 seems chiefly caused by the singularly low temperature of the 

 surrounding water brought here by the great southern polar 

 current. Excepting during one short season, very little rain 

 falls, and even then it is irregular; but the clouds generally 

 hang low. Hence, while the lower parts of the islands are 

 very sterile, the upper parts, at a height of a thousand feet 

 and upward, possess a damp climate and a tolerably luxuriant 

 vegetation. This is especially the case on the windward sides 

 of the islands, which first receive and condense the moisture 

 from the atmosphere." 



There is some uncertainty as to who first discovered the 

 Galapagos Islands. Some historians think it possible that 

 they may have been visited by the Inca, Tupac Yupangi, grand- 

 father of the Inca, Atahualpa, whom Pizarro put to death. 

 But however this may have been, there were no signs of human 

 habitation when the islands were discovered by Europeans in 

 the sixteenth century. The credit for this discovery, which is 

 said to have occurred on the 10th of March, 1535, has been 

 given to the Spaniard, Fray Tomas de Berlanga. The early 

 Spanish visitors found these islands occupied by tortoises in 

 such numbers that they applied to the group the Spanish term 

 for these creatures, — Galapagos. 



