122 TEE CRUISE OF THE " CACEALOT." 



We made the island early on a Sunday morning, and, 

 with the usual celerity, worked the vessel into the fine har- 

 bour, called, from one of the exploring ships, Euphrates 

 Bay or Harbour. The anchor down, and everything made 

 snug below and aloft, we were actually allowed a run 

 ashore free from restraint. I could hardly believe my 

 ears. We had got so accustomed to our slavery that 

 liberty was become a mere name ; we hardly knew what 

 to do with it when we got it. However, we soon got 

 used (in a very limited sense) to being our own masters, 

 and, each following the bent of his inclinations, set out 

 for a ramble. My companion and I had not gone far, 

 when we thought we saw one of the boulders, with which 

 the island was liberally besprinkled, on the move. 

 Running up to examine it with all the eagerness of 

 children let out of school, we found it to be one of the 

 inhabitants, a monstrous tortoise. I had seen some big 

 turtle around the cays of the Gulf of Mexico, but this 

 creature dwarfed them all. We had no means of actually 

 measuring him, and had to keep clear of his formidable- 

 looking jaws, but roughly, and within the mark, he was 

 four feet long by two feet six inches wide. Of course he 

 was much more dome-shaped than the turtle are, and 

 consequently looked a great deal bigger than a turtle of 

 the same measurement would, besides being much 

 thicker through. As he was loth to stay with us, we 

 made up our minds to go with him, for he was evidently 

 making for some definite spot, by the tracks he was 

 following, which showed plainly how many years that 

 same road had been used. Well, I mounted on his back, 

 keeping well astern, out of the reach of that serious- 

 looking head, which, having rather a long neck, looked as 

 if it might be able to reach round and take a piece out 



