4 
INTEODUCTION. 
without any other sort of provision. They are extraordinary large and fat, and so sweet 
that no pullet eats more pleasantly. One of the largest of these creatures will weigh 150 
or 200 weight [pounds], and some of them are 2 foot or 2 foot 6 inches over the callapee 
or belly [across the sternum]. . . . They have very long small necks and little heads." 
The condition of this group of islands, and of the animals inhabiting them, appears 
to have been unaltered when they were visited by Amasa Delajs'O and David Poetee — 
the former a captain in the merchant service, the latter in the navy of the United 
States. 
Delano ('Narrative of Voyages and Travels,' Boston, 1817, 8vo) made several visits 
to the Galapagos, the first in 1800 (p. 369). He found plenty of Tortoises in Hood's, 
Charles, James, and Albemarle Islands. He gives a good description of them, noticing 
particularly the long, serpent-like neck (p. 376): — " I have seen them with necks be- 
tween two and three feet long. . . . They would raise their heads as high as they 
could, their necks being nearly vertical, and advance with theii" mouths wide open. . . . 
They are perfectly harmless. ... I have known them live several months without 
food ; but they allways in that case grow lighter, and their fat diminishes. ... I 
carried at one time from James Island 300 very good terrapins to the island of Massa 
Fuero ; and there landed more than half of them, after having them more than 60 days 
on board my ship. Half of the number landed died as soon as they took food. . . . 
those that survived the shock which Avas occasioned by this sudden transition from total 
abstinence to that of abundance soon became tranquil, and appeared to be as healthy 
and as contented with the climate as when they were at their native place ; and they 
would probably have lived as long, had they not been killed for food. ... I have 
carried them to Canton at two different times." 
Poetee informs us of many interesting particulars in his ' Journal of a Cruise made 
to the Pacific Ocean ' (New York, 1822, 8vo, in 2 vols.). He found the Tortoises (in 
1813) in greater or less abundance in all the larger islands of the group which he visited, 
viz. Hood's, Marlborough, James, Charles, and Indefatigable (Porter's) Islands. On 
Chatham Island, where he made a short stay, a few of their shells and bones were seen, 
but they appeared to have been long dead (vol. i. p. 231); and on Albemarle Island, 
the largest of the group, none were observed by him, evidently because he landed here 
only for a few hours on the south-western point. Abingdon, Binloe, Downe, and Bar- 
rington Islands were not visited by him. Some of the Tortoises captured weighed from 
300 to 400 pounds (p. 127). "Their steps are slow, regular, and heavy; they carry 
their body about a foot from the ground. . . . Their neck is from 18 inches to 2 feet 
in length, and very slender ; their head is proportioned to it, and strongly resembles 
that of a serpent. . . . No animal can possibly afford a more wholesome, luscious, and 
delicate food than they do. . . . 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 
