1833.] 
GALAPAGOS ISLANDS. 
465 
of Narborough. The north head of Albemarle terminates west- 
wardly in Cape Berkley, which is exactly on the line. South 
and east of Albemarle are Charles's Island, Hood's, Chatham's, 
Barrington's, Downes's, Porter's, and James's Islands. 
The name of this group is derived from the Spanish word 
galapago, a fresh water toj'toise ; and it was given to these islands 
because they abound with the largest class of these animals, 
a species of terapin, to which Commodore Porter has given the 
name of elephant tortoise, as their legs, feet, and clumsy move- 
ments strongly resemble those of the elephant. Their flesh is 
most excellent food, and they seem to have been placed here, in 
these lonely regions, for the sole purpose of refreshing the ad- 
venturous mariner, whose hazardous calling is the pursuit of the 
great leviathan of the deep. Many of them weigh from three to 
four hundred pounds, and they will live in the hold of a vessel a 
remarkable length of time without sustenance, and still retain 
much of their original fatness and richness of flavour. Their 
drink is pure water, which they carry with them in a vessel pro- 
vided by nature for that purpose, containing about two gallons, 
which remains cool, fresh, and sweet for a long time after they 
are made prisoners. 
The hill-sides of these islands, near the shore, are covered 
with prickly pear-trees, upon which these terapin feed, and thrive 
in a most wonderful manner. These animals have doubtless saved 
the lives of many seamen employed in the whale-fisheries in those 
seas, who would otherwise have perished or suffered much with 
the scurvy. They sometimes take from six to nine hundred of 
the smallest of these tortoises on board, when about leaving the 
islands for their cruising grounds ; thus providing themselves with 
fresh and wholesome provisions for six or eight months, and se- 
curing the men from the attacks of scurvy. 
Charles's Island, or Floriana, at the northern end of which is 
Essex Bay, in which the Potomac lay at anchor, is about eighteen 
or twenty miles southeast of Cape Woodford, which projects 
from the south head of Albemarle Island. The centre of Charles's 
Island is in latitude 1° 17' south, longitude 90° 30' west; and is 
about twenty miles in length from north to south, and fifteen in 
breadth from east to west ; giving a superficial area of more than 
Gg 
