Gigantic Land Tortoises. 1053 
history to investigate the cause of a circumstance so extraordinary, 
my business is to state facts, not to reason from them. 
" The temperature of the air of the Galapagos Islands varies 
from 72° to 75° ; that of the blood of the tortoise is always 62°" 
(p. 2.5). 
Xo tortoises were taken by Porter on Albemarle, but he 
remarks (p. 142) that an English sailor, who had been landed there 
by his captain, existed near a year on land tortoises and guanos." 
No landing was possible on Abingdon Island, but Porter had no 
doubt landing might have been effected elsewhere ; and from the ver- 
dant appearance of the interior of the island^ he supposed that, 
like all others, it afforded tortoises. 
On Chatham, where Porter stayed only a ver>- short time, he did, 
not get any tortoises, but he " saw a few of their shells and bones ; 
but they appeared to have been long dead." This remark relates 
only to these shells and bones he found, but not to the tortoises 
of Chatham in general. 
Indefatigable Island, was surveyed by David T. Adams, 
the chaplain of the Essex, for the first time, and called Porter's 
Island. Adams informed Porter that land tortoises were in the 
five feet and a half long, four feet and a half wide, and three feet 
thick, and others were found by some of the seamen of larger size.'' 
Porter has given the following general description of the Gala- 
" Nothing, perhaps, can be more disagreeable or clumsy than 
they are in their external appearance. Their motion resembles 
strongly that of the elephant ; their steps slow, regular and heavy, 
they carry their body about a foot from the ground, and their 
legs and feet bear no slight resemblance to the animal to which I 
have likened them ; their neck is from eighteen inches to two feet 
in length, and ver}- slender ; their head is proportioned to it, and 
strongly resembles that of a serpent. But, hideous and disgusting 
^s is their appearance, no animal can possibly afford a more 
wholesome, luscious, and delicate food than they do ; the finest 
green-turtle is no more to compare to them in point of excellence 
than the coarsest beef is to the finest veal ; and after once tasting 
