1833.] 
GALAPAGOS ISLANDS. 
469 
In the valleys there have been found nine small lakes of sweet 
water, which fail not the whole year ; and others which dry up 
from August to October. In November they again commence 
fining with water. In these lakes are found many varieties of 
ducks, gallenetas del mo7ite, SLud also one species of the snipe. 
Other lakes are also met with, near the ocean, of much greater 
extent ; but the water is brackish to the taste, and these abound 
with ducks and flamingoes. The number of doves on the island 
is almost incredible, and their flesh is sweet and very tender. 
They are so tame, that any number may be knocked over with a 
pole, without trouble. Nearly two hundred were brought on board 
by the men and ofiicers of a single boat, from an afternoon's ex- 
cursion on shore ; and we have heard the governor, when sending 
out a servant to procure a few dozen for dinner, direct him to 
select only the fat ones ; and the boy went and did accordingly. 
The temperature of the island, from the end of May to Decem- 
ber, is from fifty-two to seventy-four degrees of Fahrenheit, which 
gives a medium of sixty-eight degrees, rendering woollen clothes 
the most agreeable. From January to the first of May, the ther- 
mometer stands from seventy-four to eighty-fou.r degrees, giving 
a medium of seventy-nine degrees, and the heat is consequently 
rather oppressive. During the ten days we lay in Essex Bay, in 
September, the thermometer ranged from seventy-one to seventy- 
eight degrees in the shade, on board ship ; and the barometer 
stood from 29° 70' to 29" 78'. 
The climate we should deem healthy ; as during the nineteen 
months since the arrival of the first colonists, there have been 
only five deaths. Three of these came sick from Guayaquil ; one 
died of a disease difficult to cure in any clime — that of eighty 
years of age ! and the fifth was shot, on account of an outrageous 
attack he had made on the life of the captain of an American 
whale-ship. This severity was of indispensable necessity in an 
estabhshment of so recent origin, and which can be sustained by 
moral force alone. It has done much to teach the colonists their 
true interests ; that peace among themselves, justice and good 
faith towards the vessels which may visit the islands for the pur- 
chase of their surplus produce, will alone promote their prosperity. 
At the present time, on the arrival of a whale-ship (which the 
Florianas call their ships), the whole settlement is filled with de- 
