PORTER S JOURNAL. 



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semblance to the animal to which I have likened them ; 

 their neck is from eighteen inches to two feet in length, and 

 very slender ; their head is proportioned to it, and strong- 

 ly resembles that of a serpent. But, hideous and disgust- 

 ing as is their appearance, no animal can possibly afford a 

 more wholesome, luscious, and delicate food than they do ; 

 the hnest green turtle is no more to be compared to thenn 

 in point of excellence, than the coarsest beef is to the finest 

 veal ; and after once tasting the Gallipagos tortoises, every 

 other animal food fell greatly in our estimation. These 

 animals are so fat as to require neither butter nor lard to 

 cook them, and this fat does not possess that cloying quali- 

 ty, common to that of most other animals. When tried 

 out, it furnishes an oil superior in taste to that of the olive. 

 The meat of this animal is the easiest of digestion, and a 

 quantity of it, exceeding that of any other food, can be 

 eaten, without experiencing the slightest inconvenience. 

 But what seems the most extraordinary in this animal, is 

 the length of time that it can exist without food ; for I have 

 been well assured, that they have been piled away among 

 the casks in the hold of a ship, where they have been kept 

 eighteen months, and when killed at the expiration of that 

 time, were found to have suffered no diminution in fatness 

 or excellence. They carry with them a constant supply of 

 water, in a bag at the root of the neck, which contains 

 about two gallons ; and on tasting that found in those we 

 killed on board, it proved perfectly fresh and sweet. They 

 are very restless when exposed to the light and heat of the 

 sun, but will lie in the dark from one year's end to the 

 other without moving. In the day-time, they appear re- 

 markably quick-sighted and timid, drawing their head into 

 their shell on the slightest motion of any object ; but they 

 are entirely destitute of hearing, as the loudest noise, even 

 the firing of a gun, does not seem to alarm them in the 

 slightest decree, and at night, or in the dark, they appear 

 perfectly blind. After our tasting the flesh of those ani- 

 mals, we regretted that numbers of them had been thrown 

 overboard by the crews of the vessels before their captsire, 

 to clear them for action. A few days afterwards, at day- 

 light in the morning, we were so fortunate as to find our- 

 selves surrounded by about fifty of them, which were pick- 

 ed up and brought on board* as they had been lying in tha 



