340 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES [Proc. 4th Ser. 



March 12, 1906. — Went ashore about a mile west of our 

 anchorage to hunt for tortoises and to get the two Mr. Beck 

 found yesterday. This portion of the coast is a large plateau 

 which rises very gradually to the mountain at Iguana Cove 

 and to lower hills in the distance to the eastward. This plateau 

 is densely wooded with large trees and cactus and thick brush 

 which, fortunately, is well cut through with cattle trails. The 

 tortoises are rather common ; at least, large ones are, while 

 the smaller ones seem to have been all killed by the natives, 

 if one may judge from the numerous skeletons scattered 

 through the woods. We saw, during our two days ashore 

 here, about ten tortosies, all males I think. They like the 

 shade, and in the heat of the day prefer to stay in some hollow 

 or under a bush. Judging from the amount of black mud on 

 them, they wallow in the mud like swine. We found one tor- 

 toise lying in a mud hole with all legs stretched out and his 

 head stuck in the mud. We also found one under a bush near 

 a cattle trail, and so skinned him and brought him part way 

 out. The day was very hot, and we could not make very 

 good time. We ran out of water, and felt anything but active. 

 Finally we left the tortoise on the beach down the coast and 

 made for our boat, breaking through brush and mangroves 

 every inch of the way. We. reached the vessel after dark 

 thoroughly tired out. We expect to go ashore in the morn- 

 ing, when the tide is low, and bring the tortoise around by the 

 beach. King is pretty well under the weather, having drunk 

 too much water from a hole we encountered near the end of 

 our journey. The day was altogether too hot for us to carry 

 tortoises. 



March 13, 1906. — Beck and I went ashore and carried the 

 tortoise down the coast to our boat. The tide was very low, 

 so we carried it around by the beach. We went inland again 

 from the boat to get another tortoise, and found one late in 

 the afternoon. We partly skinned this one, cutting out all the 

 heavy meat, and rushed him out to the coast, getting there 

 just before dark. In this vicinity, near the old Cobos settle- 

 ment, we noticed on some of the cattle trails the excrement 

 from the tortoises. They had eaten the fruit of a large tree, 

 which is abundant everywhere, and this fruit passed through 

 the intestines unchanged without having been chewed or dis- 



