62 WHAT MR. DARWIN SAW. 



GALAPAGOS ISLANDS. 



stays three or four days in the neighborhood of the water, 

 and then returns to the lower country; but they differed as 

 to the frequency of these visits, which probably depends on 

 the nature of the food on which the animal has lived. It is, 

 however, certain that tortoises can subsist even on those isl- 

 ands 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 moist- 

 ure necessary to its existence: such seems to be the case 

 with the tortoise. 



The tortoises, when purposely moving toward any point, 

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

 much sooner than would be expected. The inhabitants, from 

 observing marked individuals, consider that they travel a 

 distance of about eight miles in two or three days. One 

 large tortoise which I watched, walked at the rate of sixty 

 yards in ten minutes that is, three hundred and sixty yards 

 in the hour, or four miles a day, allowing a little time for it 

 to eat on the road. They were at this time (October) laying 

 their eggs. The female, where the soil is sandy, deposits 

 them together, and covers them up with sand ; but where 

 the ground is rocky she drops them about in any hole. The 

 young tortoises, as soon as they are hatched, fall a prey in 

 great numbers to the carrion-feeding buzzard. The old ones 

 seem generally to die from accidents, as from falling down 

 precipices; at least, several of the inhabitants told me that 

 they had never found one dead without some evident cause. 



The inhabitants believe that these animals are absolutely 

 deaf; certainly they do not overhear a person walking close 



