Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.2): between the years 1826 and 1836 : describing their examination of the southern shores of South America, and the Beagles's circumnavigation of the globe

504 Oct. posit their eggs ; but it must be a toilsome journey indeed for them to ascend and descend the rugged heights. Some that Mr. Stokes saw in wet, muddy places, on high ground, seemed to enjoy themselves very mvich, snuffling and waddling about in the soft clayey soil near a spring. Their manner of drinking is not unlike that of a fowl : and so fond do they appear to be of water, that it is strange they can exist for a length of time without it ; yet people living at the Galapagos say that these animals can go more than six months without drinking. A very small one lived upwards of two months on board the Beagle without either eating or drinking : and whale-ships have often had them on board alive for a much longer period. Some few of the terrapin are so large as to weigh between two and three hundred weight ; and, when standing up on their four elephantine legs, are able to reach the breast of a middle- sized man with their snake-like head,* The settlers at Charles Island do not know any way of ascertaining the age of a ter- rapin, all they say is, that the male has a longer neck than the female.f On board the Beagle a small one grew three-eighths of an inch, in length, in three months ; and another grew two inches in length in one year. Several wei-e brought alive to England. The largest we killed was three feet in length from one end of the shell to the other : but the large ones are not so good to eat as those of about fifty pounds Aveight — which are excellent, and extremely wholesome food. From a large one upwards of a gallon of very fine oil may be extracted. It is rather curious, and a striking instance of the short-sightedness of some men, who think themselves keener in discrimination than most others, that these tortoises should have excited such remarks as — '•' well, these reptiles never could have migrated * When their long necks and small heads are seen above low bushes they look just like those of snakes. t Their eggs were found in great numbers in cracks of a hard kind of clayey sand; hut so small were the cracks that many of the eggs could not be got out without being broken. The egg is nearly round, of a whitish colour, and measures two inches and a half in diameter — which is about the size of a young one when first hatched.