PORTER’S JOURNAL. 
229 
verdant appearance of the interior, I should be induced to believe, 
that this island furnishes springs of water in its mountains, but 
that they are soaked up by the loose and thirsty lava and cinders, 
of which it is chiefly composed, long before they can reach the 
sea. The eggs of the tortoise are perfectly round, white, and of 
2-| inches diameter ; they are far from being a delicacy when 
cooked, as they are dry, tasteless, and the yolk is little better than 
saw-dust in the mouth. 
The sea and land guanas abound at this island ; flamingoes and 
teal, of an excellent quality, may be killed in a salt lagoon, a few 
rods back of the beach opposite to where the ships lay ; and the 
species of doves formerly mentioned may be killed with the great¬ 
est ease, and in any numbers, in every part of the island ; they 
are fat and delicious ; and the land guana is superior in excel¬ 
lence to the squirrel or rabbit. Fish were caught in considerable 
abundance, with our seine as well as with hooks and lines, along 
side the ship, and with our boats near the rocks ; but we did not 
resort to the first-mentioned expedient through scarcity, but for 
the sake of procuring a greater variety, as we were thereby ena¬ 
bled to take mullet of a superior quality, and other fish that do 
not bite at a hook. The rock-fish did not here yield in abundance 
or excellence to any place we had yet been in ; and among other 
delicacies we were enabled with ease to supply ourselves abun¬ 
dantly with cray-fish, at low water, among the rocks, where they 
were caught by hand. 
We found captain Colnet’s chart of the island, as far as he 
surveyed it, sufficiently accurate for our purpose, but we neither- 
found his delightful groves, his rivulets of water, nor his seats 
formed by the buccaniers of earth and stone, where we might 
repose ourselves after our fruitless search for them. Led by his 
description of the beauties of the island, I proceeded to the south¬ 
west part of it, as far as Watson’s Creek, and on rounding the 
second point from the ship, I landed in a small cove, on a white 
beach, formed of small pieces of coral; this we found had been 
the principal landing-place of ships which have visited here for the 
purpose of procuring tortoises. The land here is level, and upon 
an extensive valley, which lies between two remarkable moon- 
