122 NIMROD OF TEE SEA; OR, 



returned from their hellish raids, laden with the plunder of 

 desecrated churches and ravished homes. Here the English 

 pirates found a congenial home. But the most remarkable 

 provision for the peculiar needs of the sea-faring visitor is 

 our old friend, the terrapin. At the end of several months' 

 fast on the decks or in the hold of a ship, these creatures 

 are found good for the table, with only a diminished store 

 of fat and flesh. 



As we traversed these seemingly recent formations, I was 

 continually impressed with the thought that we were read- 

 ing a first chapter in the book of Creation, wherein a soil 

 was yet to be formed, and an order of life above the rep- 

 tile to be introduced. And I was led to wonder at the 

 strange order of nature that, in the arid desolation of the 

 Galapagos, man may live in luxury, while the hog may 

 almost starve among the fine vegetation of Cocos Island. 

 This contrast extends even to the waters of the two local- 

 ities. In the harbor of Cocos Island, as the seaman leans 

 over the gunwale of his boat and gazes down into the intri- 

 cate recesses of branching corals and waving plants, he sees 

 vast numbers of highly-colored and brilliant parrot-fishes 

 grazing upon the coral polyps which grow on the stony soil. 

 In vain may he angle for a meal, for their ivory-toothed 

 mouths are so small that they can not take in a large hook, 

 and their jaws are so powerful that they will snap a small 

 one. Our method of capturing the few we took was to an- 

 neal a small steel hook and render it tough, so that it might 

 bend but not break short under the action of these strange- 

 ly-formed fish. 



At the Galapagos, the shallow basins of the shore swarm 

 with great craw-fish, to be taken by the hand ; and conger- 

 eels, to be killed with a club. Half buried in the shallows are 

 ray-fish, to be harpooned with a stick cut in a neighboring 

 copse ; black water-iguanas bask on the stones ; enormous 



