ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 
55 
cases they showed great curiosity about us. 
Mockingbirds would follow us along; hopping 
from branch to branch within arm’s reach; little 
flycatchers would perch a foot from our faces, 
in close inspection of our mystifying presences. 
It was found almost impossible to alarm some 
of the big pelicans or gulls and even among 
the crabs some individuals would stand as 
quietly as the stone while we touched or pushed 
them about. During our first hour ashore a 
wild duck flew down and alighted at our very 
feet and a short-eared owl perched on my helmet 
as I walked through the low scrubby under¬ 
growth. 
Our first day at Harrison Bay was rich in 
interest and no one of our succeeding days fell 
below its high standard. The fact that a large 
percentage of the fauna and flora of the Gala¬ 
pagos is peculiar to this Archipelago, and the 
presence of such rare forms as Amblyrhynchus, 
the only marine lizard in the world, and Con- 
olophus, an extraordinary land lizard whose 
numbers are rapidly decreasing, makes the study 
of these islands of particular interest. 
At Conway Bay we had a wide field from 
which to choose. Eden, in spite of its small size, 
yielded a great quantity and variety of speci¬ 
mens. It was here in one small cove that I ob¬ 
tained our collection of living Amblyrhynchus, 
and a host of interesting facts concerning their 
life history. Insects on the Galapagos are very 
limited as to numbers as well as species, but 
some unusual ones were collected here, while 
tide-pools among the lava shore were inexhaust¬ 
ible mines of beauty and value. Guy Fawkes 
Rocks to the northeast of our anchorage were 
favorite haunts of sea-lions and many memorable 
hours were spent under the over-hanging cliffs 
in photographing these animals and in delight¬ 
ful tests of their tameness. Later, specimens 
were secured here. 
We had not found fresh water at Conway Bay 
and our supply was rapidly diminishing. Even 
now we were on rations, shaving in Whiterock 
or Poland Water and bathing only in salt water. 
According to the chart, there was fresh water at 
James Bay on James Island, not far to the 
north of Indefatigable, and four of the party 
went off in one of the larger motor-boats to 
investigate. They returned late the same night, 
reporting that they had found no water but 
giving such glowing accounts of the island that 
we determined to stop there if only for a short 
time on our way to some other spot in search of 
water. 
At noon on April 4 we anchored at James 
Island where eighty-eight years ago Charles 
Darwin had spent a week. In James Bay we 
hurried ashore in small boats. The landing was 
a difficult one in spite of a long sandy beach, 
for the surf was very heavy and a bad under¬ 
tow combined with swirling cross currents made 
it a risky spot. This island differed from Inde¬ 
fatigable in that trees of a considerable size 
grew close to the shore, which made it possible 
with slight effort to reach the forested slopes of 
the crater. On Indefatigable we had not been 
able in the limited time at our disposal, to pene¬ 
trate the miles of country, covered with jagged 
broken lava, cactus and thorny scrub, which 
separated the semi-arid coast from the forested 
high country of the interior. On James the 
going was also made comparatively easy by the 
well-defined donkey trails. Each of the larger 
islands that we visited seemed to have some sort 
of animal, once domestic, which had bred and 
multiplied and reverted to a wild state. In¬ 
defatigable for instance, has its wild dogs; South 
Seymour its flocks of wild goats; Albemarle its 
cattle, and James, judging from the number and 
well-worn condition of the trails, is the home of 
large numbers of wild donkeys. Here we also 
found the skeletons and tracks of wild pig and 
one of our number shot a large sow. Whether 
these animals were left here by buccaneers or 
whalers as a future food supply, or whether 
they are the only survivors of ship-wrecks of 
long ago, no one knows. 
It is an interesting fact that these imported 
forms, all of which we are accustomed to con¬ 
sider as thoroughly tame, should here, after a 
few generations of non-domestication, be the 
only really wild animals. They have reverted 
to a completely feral state, that is to say, of 
fear of man, while such creatures as birds or 
reptiles from which we expect no confidence, 
are, in these islands, tamer than barnyard fowls. 
On Indefatigable one glimpse of wild dogs was 
vouchsafed to me, wolfish looking animals who, 
on sight, snarled and slunk away. 
During our few hours at James Bay we saw 
only two donkeys, one of which was pure white, 
though the hills often reverberated to their 
hearty braying, and the one wild pig was secured 
only after a stalking as cautious as though a deer 
had been the object of the chase. The contrast 
is great between this sort of pursuit and our 
experiences in lifting up frigate birds and cor¬ 
morants from their nests, and patting sea-lions 
on the head. 
We found no fresh water on James, only 
brackish pools close to the sea, where ducks and 
herons were plentiful. Here too we saw flam¬ 
ingos passing overhead, but there were few sea- 
