of the soil and the absence of springs of 
fresh water. The only spring I saw was 
flowing from a crevice of one of the cra- 
ters: some of the trees attain a considera- 
ble size in the valleys, but they are not 
numerous, and with little variety of species. 
The birds, however, are abundant, and 
some of them exceedingly handsome, but 
so ignorant were they of man's devices, 
that they suffered themselves to be killed 
with a stick, so that a gun was only needed 
when they sat high on the top of a tree or 
rock. Many of the smaller kinds perched 
on my hat, and even unconsciously settled 
upon the gun (that instrument of their de- 
struction) which I carried on my shoulder. 
During my visits to the island, of two 
hours a-day for three days, I killed forty- 
five individuals of nineteen genera, all of 
which I skinned carefully, and had then the 
mortification of losing all but one, a spe- 
cies of Sula, from the constant rain that 
prevailed for twelve days after leaving the 
Gallipagos. Among them were two kinds 
of Pelican, four of Sula, and four Hawks 
(one of the latter was particularly fine, 
of nearly an orange-colour) and a very 
small Pigeon. A species of rock cod was 
so abundant near the shore as to be taken 
without any bait, and the sharks were so 
voracious as to bite continually at the oars, 
as their points were raised from the water. 
The woods teemed with land tortoises, 
some weighing 400lbs., and the shores 
with turtle. With my collection of plants 
I was almost as unfortunate as that of birds 
—out of the one hundred and seventy-five 
species which I gathered, I could save but 
fifty, and these in a very miserable state, 
as I had no place below in the vessel where 
I might stow them, nor could I pack them 
damp, and the rain ruined every thing that 
was exposed upon the deck. There w 
nothing, however, which I regretted so 
much as the destruction of a specimen of 
anew Lacerta, from twenty to thirty inches 
long, of a dark orange-colour, and with a 
rough warty skin. We had made good 
E 
pe Soup of these creatures when upon the 
island. Never did I experience greater 
tification than from the loss of these 
NORTH-WESTERN PARTS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
ar 
collections, the Gallipagos have been so 
little visited by scientific persons, that every 
thing becomes of interest which is brought 
from thence, and I have now little or no- 
thing to show that I have been there! I 
have, however, secured seeds, in a good 
state, of a very singular species of Cactus, 
which grows in the valleys, the trunk is 
two or three feet in diameter, and from forty - 
to fifty feet high; it belongs to the section 
Opuntia, and has large bright yellow flow- 
ers, and very long flexible spines. Also 
of a fine Gossypium or Cotton-plant, which 
is a shrub four to ten feet high, with yellow 
blossoms and yellow cotton ; and of a plant » 
which will probably be found to belong to 
the Conifere. The thermometer stood 
frequently at 96°, and the heat was most 
oppressive; on one occasion, when the rain 
ceased for an hour, and the sun broke forth, 
it raised such a steam from the ground as 
proved almost suffocating. 
After leaving James's Island, we passed 
along the East side of Albemarle Island, so 
near as to ascertain that it was inhabited, 
from seeing lights upon itafter dark: some 
driven off the shore by a tremendous thun- 
der-storm. Never did I witness any thing 
equal in grandeur and singularity to the — 
vividness and curious forms of the flashes — 
of lightning: four tons of water were ob- - : 
tained from the sails and deck, which proved. 
a most acceptable relief to us, increasing 
our allowance, and enabling us to wash our 
able winds, frequent rain, and almost nightly 
storms of thunder and lightning. In 
34» N., I caught an undescribed species o- 
Albatross, akin to Diomedea fuliginosa, 
but a smaller and less powerful bird. The 
D. exulans, as found in the higher latitudes 
of the Pacific, is much smaller than it is 
in the Southern Hemisphere, and will pi 
bably prove a distinct species. Our second 
mate, who kindly assisted me in. taking: 
these birds (and, as I mentioned before, 
they can only > captured in the = 
