Mr Scouler's Voyage to the Pacific Ocean. 213 



plentiful, which they consume in large quantities. As the 

 tortoise is destitute of all offensive weapons, he draws his head 

 and limbs within his shell on the approach of danger, making 

 at the same time a hissing noise. These, animals are capable 

 of enduring very long fasts, and in cold weather they remain 

 quite torpid. I kept one of these tortoises for eight months, 

 and, during that time, it did not consume above an ounce of 

 food. 



The green turtle is very plentiful, and attains a great size, 

 often weighing 300 pounds ; and, in the course of two days, 

 we caught about thirty of these animals. We had two me- 

 thods of taking the turtle ; we either surprised them while 

 they came on shore, or caught them while asleep on the wa- 

 ter. In this case we approached them in the boat, making as 

 little noise as possible, while a man stood ready to fix a toma- 

 hawk into the shell, and to hold him till he could be lifted in- 

 to the boat. This last method was attended by an inconve- 

 nience, that the turtle was often so injured, as to die in a few 

 days. 



The woods abound in a species of Iguana, which I think 

 is new, but, unfortunately, the specimen I attempted to pre- 

 serve became so putrid, that I was obliged to throw it away. 

 It is almost twenty-nine inches long ; the back and sides are 

 of a brown colour, and the belly is yellow ; the whole skin 

 was covered by small scaly tubercles, and had a ridge of very 

 large pointed ones extending along the back, from the occi- 

 put to the extremity of the tail. There was a dilatation under 

 the throat, but no large tubercles in that situation. The 

 tongue was fleshy, inextensible, and slightly bifurcated at the 

 point. The Iguana lives entirely upon leaves and fruits, and 

 burrows deeply into the ground. * It is a timid inoffensive 

 creature, and always runs from the pursuer, unless when 

 wounded, when it turns upon its enemy. We killed great 

 numbers of them, and used them as food. There is a smaller 

 aquatic species, belonging to the genus Monitor, with a flat 

 perpendicular tail, but it is much rarer than the other. 



* The sandy ground near the eoast is quite ploughed up by these ani- 

 mals, no as to render walking in the vicinity of their abodes very trouble- 

 some. 



