THE GALAPAGOS TORTOISES. 279 



and Bourbon. Like the camel, the turpins have a stomach or reservoir in which they pre- 

 serve water to the amount of several quarts for a long time. Voyagers sometimes kill them 

 for the purpose of procuring this water to drink, which they pronounce to be cool and .sweet. 

 Commodore Porter told me he had repeatedly tasted it, and could bear witness how good and 

 potable it was. The water the stomach contains is sufficient for cooking the flesh. The 

 Gallapagos are stated to abound in volcanoes, and subterranean fires. They are rocky, 

 peaked and forbidding. There are few springs or brooks of water. With great difficulty 

 and exertion the Essex collected about half a dozen casks; and then sailed for the continent 

 to obtain a further supply. There are no settled or stationary human inhabitants. 



The seas abound in excellent fish and green turtle. Cocoa-nuts may be found in some 

 places on shore. And the Guanos lizard may be catched for eating. But it must be remem- 

 bered that this is the Sea-Guanos, a species of lacerta, entirely different from that of the 

 West-Indies. The Sea-Guanos of the Gallapagos, swim and feed in the ocean, and go ashore 

 to rest and breed." 



The following occurs on p. 404 of the same volume: 



"On the 13th of February, 1815, I examined the body of the female Gallapagos tortoise. 



I found the alimentary canal to be exceedingly large and capacious. The whole length 

 of this tube, from the throat to the anus, was about thirteen feet. Of this the gullet and 

 stomach were twenty inches; the small guts five feet, and the large ones six feet and a half. 

 The caecum had no appendages; the colon had faint and 'weak muscular bands; and the 

 rectum communicated with the uterus and bladder a few inches before the posterior outlet. 

 They are all united with one common cloaca. 



The bladder contained a considerable quantity of urine. It was remarkably large, and 

 capable of holding four quarts of water, as we found by experiment. The creature, when 

 alive, voided naturally great quantities of urine. 



The animal is said to hold within it, when in health, a plenty of potable water. I found 

 none in this individual; though the stomach, colon, and bladder could each have contained a 

 large supply. The reason probably was, that the creature had been for a long time under 

 artificial restraint, and had been crammed to death, through kindness, by Indian meal (meal 

 of maize). The uterus contained two eggs almost ready for exclusion, the weight of one 

 alone was six ounces. These had beautiful calcarious shells, that were rough, white, round, 

 and about the size of a one pound shot. It was divided into two parts, and the ova were 

 very numerous, and of different sizes. Near the junction of the two cornua u:(Ti with the 

 strait intestine, were the two kidneys of a triangular figure, and of a convoluted structure. 

 Their extreme length was four inches, and the breadth of the widest part two and a half. 



The trachea divided into two branches, one of which entered each lung. The cells of 

 this organ were open, large, and distinct, as usual in these amphibious creatures. 



There were two large muscles parallel with the back, for retracting the neck. One of 

 them arose from each side of the cervical vertebrae; they were of extraordinary length, and 

 were inserted in the shell towards the rump. The outer coat of the shell looked as if it was 

 sufficiently beautiful for manufacture. 



The heart consisted of two auricles and one ventricle; the auricles were separated by a 

 septum. The pulmonary veins emptied into one, and the vena ca\ a into the other. There 

 was but a single ventricle; and two fleshy valves, in shape somewhat like the epiglottis, 

 opposed the return of the blood from the ventricle into the auricles. 



From the ventricle proceeded three arteries; two of which soon divided into two branches 

 each, making five in the whole, soon after leaving the heart. The heart was oblong and kidney 

 shaped. These arteries had appropriate valves at their origin." 



