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GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO. 



Oct. 1835. 



tarijy swimming out at sea, absolutely prove its aquatic 

 habits ; yet there is in this respect one strange anomaly ; 

 namely^ that when frightened it will not enter the water. 

 From this cause^ it is easy to drive these lizards down to 

 any little point overhanging the sea, where they will sooner 

 allow a person to catch hold of their tail than jump into the 

 water. They do not seem to have any notion of biting ; but 

 when much frightened they squirt a drop of fluid from each 

 nostril. One day I carried one to a deep pool left by the 

 retiring tide, and threw it in several times as far as I was 

 able. It invariably returned in a direct line to the spot 

 where I stood. It swam near the bottom, with a very 

 graceful and rapid movement, and occasionally aided itself 

 over the uneven ground with its feet. As soon as it arrived 

 near the margin, but still being under water, it either tried to 

 conceal itself in the tufts of sea-weed, or it entered some 

 crevice. As soon as it thought the danger was past, it 

 crawled out on the dry rocks, and shuffled away as quickly 

 as it could. I several times , lught this same lizard, by 

 driving it down to a point, and though possessed of such 

 perfect powers of diving and swimming, nothing would 

 induce it to enter the water ; and as often as I threw it in, 

 it returned in the manner above described. Perhaps this 

 singular piece of apparent stupidity may be accounted for by 

 the circumstance, that this reptile has no enemy whatever on 

 shore, whereas at sea it must often fall a prey to the nume- 

 rous sharks. Hence, probably urged by a fixed and heredi- 

 tary instinct that the shore is its place of safety, whatever 

 the emergency may be, it there takes refuge. 



During our visit (in October) I saw extremely few small 

 individuals of this species, and none I should think under a 

 year old. From this circumstance it seems probable that 

 the breeding season had not commenced. I asked several 

 of the inhabitants if they knew where it laid its eggs : 

 they said, that although well acquainted with the eggs 

 of the other kind, they had not the least knowledge of the 



