144 GALAPAGOS AUCIlIl'ELAUa. 



Beagle went for water. We found here a party 

 of Spaniards, who had been sent from Charles Isl- 

 and to dry fish and to salt tortoise-meat. About 

 six miles inland, and at the height of nearly 2000 

 feet, a hovel had been built, in which two men 

 lived, who were emjiloyed in catching tortoises 

 whilst the others were fishing on the coast. I paid 

 this party two visits, and slept there one night. As 

 in the other islands, the lower region was covered 

 by nearly leafless bushes, but the trees were here 

 of a larger growth than elsewhere, several being 

 two feet, and some even two feet nine inches in di- 

 ameter. The upper region, being kept damp by 

 the clouds, supports a green and flourishing vege- 

 tation. So damp was the ground that there were 

 large beds of a coarse cyperus, in which great 

 numbers of a very small water-rail lived and bred. 

 While staying in this upper region we lived entire- 

 ly upon tortoise-meat : the' breast-plate roasted (as 

 the Gauchos do carne con cziero), with the flesh on 

 it, is very good, and the young toitoises make ex- 

 cellent soup ; but otherwise the meat to my taste 

 is indifferent. 



One day we accompanied a party of the Span- 

 iards in their whale-boat to a salina, or lake from 

 which salt is procured. After landing, we had a 

 very rough walk over a rugged field of recent lava, 

 which has almost surrounded a tuff'-crater, at the 

 bottom of which the salt-lake lies. The water is 

 only three or four inches deep, and rests on a lay- 

 er of beautifully crystallized white salt. The lake 

 is quite circular, and is fringed with a border of 

 bright green succulent plants ; the almost precipi- 

 tous walls of the crater are clothed with wood, so 

 that the scene was altogether both picturesque and 

 curious. A few years since, the sailors belonging 

 to a sealing-vessel murdered their captain in this 



