284 GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO. [CHAP, xvii, 



guayavita, under which trees I have seen these lizards and the huge 

 tortoises feeding together. To obtain the acacia-leaves they crawl up 

 the low stunted trees ; and it is not uncommon to see a pair quietly 

 browsing, whilst seated on a branch several feet above the ground. 

 These lizards, when cooked, yield a white meat, which is liked by 

 those whose stomachs soar above all prejudices. Humboldt has 

 remarked that in intertropical South America, all lizards which inhabit 

 dry regions are esteemed delicacies for the table. The inhabitants 

 state that those which inhabit the upper damp parts drink water, but 

 that the others do not, like the tortoises, travel up for it from the lower 

 sterile country. At the time of our visit, the females had within their 

 bodies numerous, large, elongated eggs, which they lay in their burrows ; 

 the inhabitants seek them for food. 



These two species of Amblyrhynchus agree, as I have already stated, 

 in their general structure, and in many of their habits. Neither have 

 that rapid movement so characteristic of the genera Lacerta and Iguana. 

 They are both herbivorous, although the kind of vegetation on which 

 they feed is so very different. Mr. Bell has given the name to the 

 genus from the shortness of the snout ; indeed, the form of the mouth 

 may almost be compared to that of the tortoise : one is led to suppose 

 that this is an adaptation to their herbivorous appetites. It is very 

 interesting thus to find a well-characterized genus, having its marine 

 and terrestrial species, belonging to so confined a portion of the world. 

 The aquatic species is by far the most remarkable, because it is the 

 only existing lizard which lives on marine vegetable productions. As 

 I at first observed, these islands are not so remarkable for the number 

 of the species of reptiles, as for that of the individuals ; when we 

 remember the well-beaten paths made by the thousands of huge 

 tortoises the many turtles the great warrens of the terrestrial Ambly- 

 rhynchus and the groups of the marine species basking on the coast- 

 rocks of every island we must admit that there is no other quarter of 

 the world where this Order replaces the herbivorous mammalia in so 

 extraordinary a manner. The geologist on hearing this will probably 

 refer back in his mind to the Secondary epochs, when lizards, some 

 herbivorous, some carnivorous, and of dimensions comparable only 

 with our existing whales, swarmed on the land and in the sea. It is, 

 therefore, worthy of his observation, that this archipelago, instead of 

 possessing a humid climate and rank vegetation, cannot be considered 

 otherwise than extremely arid, and, for an equatorial region, remarkably 

 temperate. 



To finish with the zoology : the fifteen kinds of sea-fish which I pro- 

 cured here are all new species ; they belong to twelve genera, all 

 widely distributed, with the exception of Prionotus, of which the four 

 previously known species live on the eastern side of America. Of land- 

 shells I collected sixteen kinds (and two marked varieties), of which, 

 with the exception of one Helix found at Tahiti, all are peculiar to this 

 archipelago ; a single fresh-water shell (Paludina) is common to Tahiti 

 and Van Diemen's Land. Mr. Cuming, before our voyage, procured 

 here ninety species of sea-shells, and tbis does not include several 



