THB TOBTDUE. 



definite point, travel by night and day, and arrive at theit 

 journey's end much sooner than would he expected. The in- 

 habitiuits o£ the island, from observations on marked indivi- 

 duals, consider that they can move a distance of about eight 

 miles in two or three days. One large tortoise, which Darwin 

 watched, walked at the rate of sixty yards in ten minutes, 

 that is, three hundred and sixty in the hour, or four miles a 

 day — allowing it also a little time to eat on the road. The 

 flesh of this animal is largely employed by the natives, the fat 

 being stewed down for oil. When a tortoise is caught its 

 captor makes a slit in the skin near the tail, so as to see inside 

 its body whether the fat under the dorsal plate is thick. If 

 not, the animal is liberated ; and it is said to recover very 

 •peedily from the unceremonious test to which it has beeB 

 Kil^ected. 



