18.15.] GREAT TORTOISE. 38S 



and wallowing in the mud. The larger islands alone possess 

 springs, and these are always situated towards the central parts,, 

 and at a considerable height. The tortoises, therefore, which 

 frequent the lower districts, when thirsty, are obliged to travel 

 from a long distance. Hence broad and well-beaten paths 

 branch off in every direction from the wells down to the sea- 

 coast ; and the Spaniards by following them up, first discovered 

 the watering-places. When I landed at Chatham Island, I could 

 not imagine what animal travelled so methodically along well- 

 chosen tracks. Near the springs it was a curious spectacle to 

 behold many of these huge creatures, one set eagerly travelling 

 onwards with outstretched necks, and another set returning, after 

 having drunk their fill. When the tortoise arrives at the 

 spring, quite regardless of any spectator, he buries his head in 

 the water above his eyes, and greedily swallows great mouthfulls, 

 at the rate of about ten in a minute. The inhabitants say each 

 animal stays three or four days in the neighbourhood of the 

 water, and then returns to the lower country ; but they differed 

 respecting the frequency of these visits. The animal probably 

 regulates them according to the nature of the food on which it 

 has lived. It is, however, certain, that tortoises can subsist 

 even on those islands, where there is no other water than what 

 falls during a few rainy days in the year. 



I believe it is well ascertained, that the bladder of the frog 

 acts as a reservoir for the moisture necessary to its existence : 

 such seems to be the case with the tortoise. For some time 

 after a visit to the springs, their urinary bladders are distended 

 with fluid, which is said gradually to decrease in volume, and to 

 become less pure. The inhabitants, when walking in the lower 

 district, and overcome with thirst, often take advantage of this 

 circumstance, and drink the contents of the bladder if full : in 

 one I saw killed, the fluid was quite limpid, and had only a very 

 slightly bitter taste. The inhabitants, however, always first 

 drink the water in the pericardium, which is described as being 

 best. 



The tortoises, when purposely moving towards any point, 

 travel by night and day, and arrive at their journey's end much 

 sooner than would be expected. The inhabitants, from ob- 

 serving marked individuals, consider that they travel a dis- 



