LEAxfE. FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



travelling m tne visits to the springs, or when 

 going to any definite point, is said by those who 

 have come to their conclusion from observations 

 on marked individuals, to be about eight miles in 

 two or three days, and they continue to move on- 

 wards both by night and by day. Mr. Darwin 

 watcned one large tortoise, and found that it 

 walked at the rate of sixty yards in ten minutes ; 

 that is, 3GO in the hour, or four miles a-day, 

 allowing a little time for it to eat on the road. 



The love-pranks of the male are continued with 

 a deliberation worthy of a creature whose motions 

 in excavating the earth for hybernation are so 

 ridiculously slow, that White describes the move- 

 ment of the legs, when so employed, as little 

 exceeding that of the hour-hand of a clock. Mr. 

 Darwin relates that when the Galapagos tortoise 

 is solus cum sold he utters a hoarse roar or 

 bellowing, which can be heard at the distance of 

 a hundred yards, and then is vocally silent for the 

 rest of the year. The female, it is said, never 

 makes her voice heard, if, indeed, she have one. 

 The white spherical eggs are laid in October, the 

 female depositing them together where the soil is 

 sandy, and covering them up with sand. Where 

 the ground is rocky she drops them indiscrimi- 

 nately in any hollow. Seven were found placed 

 in a line in a fissure. One measured by Mr. 

 Darwin was seven inches and three eighths in 

 circumference. As soon as the young tortoises 

 are hatched they are exposed to the attacks of a 

 buzzard, which has the habits of the caracara, and 

 fall a prey in great numbers to that bird. Acci- 

 dents, such as falls from precipices, seem to be 

 the principal events against which these tortoises 

 have to guard. Several of the inhabitants told 

 Mr. Darwin that they had never found one dead 

 without some such apparent cause. They believe 

 that these animals are, like the majority of Per- 

 sian cats, absolutely deaf; and Mr. Darwin 

 declares with certainty that they do not overhear 

 a person walking close behind them. He was 

 amused, when overtaking one of these great mon- 

 sters, as it was quietly pacing along, to see how 

 suddenly, the instant he passed, it would draw in 

 its head and legs, and, uttering a deep hiss, fall to 

 the ground with a heavy sound, as if struck dead. 

 He frequently got on their backs, and then, upon 

 giving a few raps on the hinder part of the shell, 

 they would rise up and walk away ; but he found 

 it very difficult to keep his balance. 



The flesh of these tortoises is largely consumed, 

 both fresh and salted. It is not unusual to collect 

 them, barrel them up alive, put them on shipboard, 

 and take them out as they are wanted, when they 

 do not appear to have wasted much in consequence 

 of their fast. From the fat a fine clear oil is 

 prepared ; and when a tortoise is caught, the 

 state of its fatness is ascertained by a very sum- 

 mary process, which must be more satisfactory to 

 the agent than the patient. The captor makes a 

 slit with a knife in the skin near the animal's tail, 

 so as to see inside its body whether the fat under 

 the dorsal plate is thick. If it be not the tortoise 



is liberated for that time, walks away, and soon 

 recovers so as to be none the worse for the oper- 

 ation. Those who follow this somewhat trenchant 

 course of experiment are soon made aware, that to 

 secure one of these tortoises it is not sufficient to 

 turn them like turtle ; for, as Mr. Darwin tells us, 

 they are often able to regain their upright position 

 after having been so left on their backs. 



In America people have an odd way of immor- 

 talizing themselves, and leaving intimations to 

 friends and succeeding visitors where they have 

 been. When they find a tortoise, they turn it up, 

 cut their names with a knife on the investing 

 horny plates of the plastron or ventral portion of 

 the shell, and then setting the reptile on its legs, 

 give the walking inscription its liberty. 



But if we are to credit ancient legends, our 

 royal tortoise and its Galapagosian brethren must 

 hide their diminished heads. De Laet avers that 

 they grow to such a size in Cuba, that one will 

 carry five men on its back, and walk off with 

 them. But some authors never like to be outdone, 

 and the writer of Thaumatographia, who, to do 

 him justice, is a most industrious collector of 

 marvellous stories, gives us one on the authority 

 of Leo that throws all other testudinarian tales 

 into the shade. A traveller in Africa, weary and 

 way-sore at the end of a fatiguing day, aftei 

 seeking in vain for shelter, looked about, as tht 

 shades of evening deepened, for some insulatet 

 rock in the desert on which he might repost* 

 secure from the fierce or poisonous animals tha 

 infested those dreary wilds. At length, just a,. 

 darkness overtook him, he saw what he wanted, 

 climbed it, found a good flat place on its summit, 

 lay down, and soon forgot the labors of the pas. 

 day in a heavy slumber, from which he awoke no. 

 till the sun was up, and then he found that hi. 

 dormitory had been moved nearly three thousand 

 paces from the spot where he had laid down. 

 This made him look about him, when he dis- 

 covered that what he had taken for a rock was a 

 tortoise, that had gone on feeding during the night, 

 but at so imperceptibly slow a pace that the 

 sleeper was not aware of the motion. 



The great Galapagos tortoises which have 

 hitherto been brought to this country have never 

 lived long. They have thriven apparently till 

 the time of hybernation arrived, and then have 

 slept never to wake again. The returning spring 

 has always found them dead. Whether they have 

 not the means of properly laying themselves up 

 and of reposing in the temperature exactly suited 

 to their case, or have been fed too liberally on 

 lettuce, which acts as an opiate when taken in any 

 large quantity, are questions that have been con- 

 sidered, but as yet have not been satisfactorily 

 answered. Taking into the account their usual 

 diet in a state of nature, it may be questioned 

 whether it is advisable to feed these gigantic tor- 

 toises so much on lettuces. The quantity of 

 opium which must find its way into the system 

 under so large a consumption must be very con- 

 siderable ; and it would be as well to try the 



