THE GALAPAGOS TORTOISES. 219 
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 cecum 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 uteri 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 ot 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 cava 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.” 
