178 A NATURALIST ON DESERT ISLANDS. 



sons. These people are, in fact, really notliing more than 

 modern buccaneers, for although they do not " boucan " 

 their meat in the original style, yet the result is much the 

 same, even if their aim and object is more peaceful. Here 

 also, we saw huge piles of bones stacked in heaps, pre- 

 sumably ready for transportation to the mainland, where 

 they would be ground up for manure ; and also numbers 

 of turtle shells, the flesh of which is cured and packed in 

 large jars. Judging from the number of their shells, 

 this last industry forms no small part of the o\^Tier's 

 profits. 



Dampier writes in his quaint way of the large 

 numbers of green turtle which visited the island in 

 his time. 



*' There is sandy Bays," he observes," round the Island, 

 where Turtle or Tortoise come up in great abundance, 

 going ashore in the night. These that frequent this 

 Island are called green Turtle, and they are the best of 

 that sort, both for largeness and sweetness, of any in all 

 the West Indies." 



Again, further on in his " Voyages " he writes : "I 

 have observed that at Blanco (Blanquilla), in the West 

 Indies, the Green Turtle * (which is the only kind there) 

 are larger than any other in the North Sea. There they 

 will commonly weigh 280 or 300 Pound ; their Fat is yellow 

 and the Lean white, and their flesh extraordinary sweet." 

 As no one, as far as I am aware, has had anything to say 

 about this island since Dampier 's visit to it in 1682, I 

 may be excused for again quoting parts of his description 

 taken from his " Voyages." " It is a flat, even, low, 

 uninhabited Island, dry and healthy ; most Savannah 

 of long grass, and hath some Trees of Lignum Vitse 

 growing in spots, with shrubby bushes of other Wood 

 about them. 



"It is plentifully stored with Guanos I which are an 

 Animal like a Lizard, but much bigger. 



♦ Chelone mydas. 

 t Iguanas. 



