504 



TORTOISE, OH TEllRAPIN. 



Oct. 



posit their eggs ; but it must be a toilsome journey indeed for 

 them to ascend and descend the rugged heights. Some that 

 Mr. Stokes saw in wet, muddy places, on high ground, seemed 

 to enjoy themselves very much, snuffling and waddling about 

 in the soft clayey soil near a spring. Their mtinner of drinking 

 is not unlike that of a fowl : and so fond do they appear to be 

 of water, that it is strange they can exist for a length of time 

 without it ; yet people living at the Galapagos say that these 

 animals can go more than six months without drinking. A 

 very small one lived upwards of two months on board the 

 Beagle without either eating or drinking : and whale-ships 

 have often had them on board alive for a much longer period. 

 Some few of the terrapin are so large as to weigh between two 

 and three hundred weight; and, when standing up on their 

 four elephantine legs, are able to reach the breast of a middle- 

 sized man with their snake-like head.* The settlers at Charles 

 Island do not know any way of ascertaining the age of a ter- 

 rapin, all they say is, that the male has a longer neck than the 

 female.f On board the Beagle a small one grew three-eighths 

 of an inch, in length, in three months ; and another grew two 

 inches in length in one year. Several were brought alive to 

 England. The largest we killed was three feet in length from 

 one end of the shell to the other : but the large ones are not so 

 good to eat as those of about fifty pounds weight — which are 

 excellent, and extremely wholesome food. From a large one 

 upwards of a gallon of very fine oil may be extracted. It is 

 rather curious, and a striking instance of the short-sightedness 

 of some men, who think themselves keener in discrimination 

 than most others, that these tortoises should have excited such 

 remarks as — well, these reptiles never could have migrated 



* When their long- necks and small heads are seen above low bushes 

 they look just like those of snakes. 



t Their eggs were found in great numbers in cracks of a hard kind of 

 claj^ey sand; but so small were the cracks that many of the eggs could 

 not be got out without being- broken. The egg is nearly round, of a 

 whitish colour, and measures two inches and a half in diameter — which 

 is about the size of a young one when first hatched. 



