were picked up and brought on board, as they had been lying in 
the same place where they had been thrown over, incapable of 
any exertion in that element, except that of stretching out their 
long necks." Two other English vessels captured later, "had 
been only a few days from James Island ; " Porter "found on 
board them eight hundred tortoises of a very large size, and suf- 
ficient to furnish all the ships [with 333 men] with fresh provi- 
sions for one month." At another time Porter laid in a very 
large stock of tortoises from James Island. "Four boats were 
despatched every morning for this purpose, and returned at night, 
brmging with them from twenty to thirty each, averaging sixty 
pounds. In four days we had as many on board as would weigh 
about fourteen tons, which was as much as we could conveniently 
stow. They were piled up on the quarter-deck for a few days, 
with an awning spread over to shield them from the sun, which 
renders them very restless, in order that they might have time to 
discharge the contents of their stomachs; after which they were 
stowed away below, as you would stow any other provisions, and 
used as occasion required. No description of stock is so conven- 
ient for ships to take to sea as the tortoises of these islands. 
They require no provisions or water for a year, nor is any farther 
attention to them necessary, than that their shells should be pre- 
served unbroken" (p. 214). "The most of those we took on 
board were found near a bay on the northeast part of the Island, 
about eighteen miles from the ship. Among the whole only 
three were male, which may be easily known by their great size, 
and from the length of their tails, which are much longer than 
those of the females. As the females were found in low sandy 
bottoms, and. all without exception were full of eggs, of which 
generally from ten to fourteen were hard, it is presumable that 
they came down from the mountains for the express purpose of 
laymg. This opinion seems strengthened by the circumstance 
of there being no male tortoises among them, the few we found 
having been taken 
considerable distance up the mountains. 
One remarkable peculiarity in this animal is, that the blood i 
cold. I shall leave it to those better acquainted with 
