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The Bay swarmed with animals: Fish, Shark & Turtles were popping their heads up in all parts. Fishing lines were soon put overboard & great numbers of fine fish 2 & even 3 ft long were caught. This sport makes all hands very merry; loud laughter & the heavy flapping of the fish are heard on every side. - After dinner a party went on shore to try to catch Tortoises, but were unsuccessful. - These islands appear paradises for the whole family of Reptiles. Besides three kinds of Tortoises Turtles, the Tortoise is so abundant; that single Ship's company will catch here caught from 500-800 in a short time. - The black Lava rocks on the beach are frequented by large (2-3 ft) most disgusting, clumsy Lizards. They are as black as the porous rocks over which they crawl & seek their prey as from the Sea. - Somebody calls them "imps of darkness". - They assuredly well become the land they inhabit. - When on shore I proceeded to botanize & obtained 10 different flowers; but such insignificant, ugly little flowers, as would better become an Arctic, than a Tropical country. - The birds are Strangers to Man & think us him as innocent as their countrymen the huge Tortoises. Little birds within 3 & four feet, quietly hopped about the Bushes & were not frightened by stones being thrown at them. Mr King[page] 606
killed one with his hat & I pushed off a branch with the end of my gun a large Hawk. -Galapagos Isds
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chimney. The comparison would have been more exact if I had said the Iron furnaces near Wolverhampton. - From one point of view I counted 60 of these truncated hillocks, which are only from 50 to 100 ft above the plain of Lava. - The age of the various streams is distinctly marked by the presence & absence of Vegetation; in the latter & more modern nothing can be imagined more rough & horrid. - Such a surface has been aptly compared to a sea petrified in its most boisterous moments. No sea however presents such irregular undulations, - nor such deep & long chasms. The craters are all entirely inert; consisting indeed of nothing more than a ring of cinders. - There are large circular pits, from 30 to 80 ft deep; which might be mistaken for Craters, but are in reality formed by the subsidence of the roofs of great caverns, which probably were produced by a volume of gaz at the time when the Lava was liquid. - The scene was to me novel & full of interest; it is always delightful to behold anything which has been long known familiar, but only by description. - In my walk I met two very large Tortoises (circumference of shell about 7 ft). One was eating a Cactus & then quietly walked away. - The other gave a deep & loud hiss & then drew back his head. - They were so heavy, I could scarcely lift[page] 608
them off the ground. - Surrounded by the black Lava, the leafless shrubs & large Cacti, they appeared most old-fashioned antediluvian animals; or rather inhabitants of some other planet. -Galapagos Isds
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have been cleared, in which sweet Potatoes (convolvulus Batata) & Plantains grow with luxuriance. - The houses are scattered over the cultivated ground & form what in Chili would be called a "Pueblo". - Since leaving Brazil we have not seen so Tropical a Landscape, but there is a great deficiency in the absence of the lofty, various & all-beautiful trees of that country. - It will not easily be imagined, how pleasant the change was from Peru & Northern Chili, in walking in the pathways to find black mud & on the trees to see mosses, ferns & Lichens & Parasitical plants adhaering. - Owing to an unusual quantity of rain at this time of year, I suspect we have seen the Island at its full advantage. - I suspect this the more from meeting with singularly few insects of any of the orders. - If such luxuriance is constant this scarcity of its universal concomitants is very remarkable. - The inhabitants are in number 200-300: nearly all are people of color & banished for Political crimes from the State of the Equator (Quito & Guyaquil &c) to which this Archipelago belongs. - It appears the people are far from contented; they complain, here as in Chiloe, of the deficiency of money: I presume there is some more essential want than that of mere Currency, namely want of sale of their produce. - This of course will gradually be ameliorated. - already on an average,[page] 610
in the year 60-70 Whaling vessels call for provisions & refreshment. - The main evil under which these islands suffer is the scarcity of water. - In very few places streams reach the beach so as to afford facilities for the watering of Shipping. Every where the porous nature of the Volcanic rocks has a tendency to absorb without again throwing up the little water which falls in the course of the year. - At the Settlement there are several springs & small pools, three or four of which are said never to fail. - Generally the islands in the Pacifick are subject to years of drought & subsequent scarcity; I should be afraid this group will not afford an exception. - The inhabitants here lead a sort of Robinson Crusoe life; the houses are very simple, built of poles & thatched with grass. - Part of their time is employed in hunting the wild pigs & goats with which the woods abound; from the climate, agriculture requires but a small portion. - The main article however of animal food is the Terrapin or Tortoise: such numbers yet remain that it is calculated two days hunting will find food for the other five in the week. - Of course the numbers have been much reduced; not many years since the Ship's company of a Frigate brought down to the Beach in one day more than 200, - where[page] 611
the settlement now is, around the Springs, they formerly swarmed. - Mr Lawson thinks there is yet left sufficient for 20 years: he has however sent a party to Jame's Island to salt (there is a Salt mine there) the meat. - Some of the animals are there so very large, that upwards of 200 Lbs of meat have been procured from one. - Mr Lawson reccollect having seen a Terrapin which 6 men could scarcely lift & two could not turn over on its back. These immense creatures must be very old, in the year 1830 one was caught (which required 6 men to lift it into the boat) which had various dates carved on its shells; one was 1786. - The only reason why it was not at that time carried away must have been, that it was too big for two men to manage. - The Whalers always send away their men in pairs to hunt. -Galapagos Isds
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was overpowringly hot; & the lake looked blue & clear. - I hurried down the cindery side, choked with dust, to my disgust on tasting the water found it Salt as brine. - This crater & some other neighbouring ones have only poured forth mud or Sandstone containing fragments of Lavas Volcanic rocks; but from the mountain behind, great bare streams have flowed, sometimes from the summit, or from small Craters on the side, expanding in their descent have at the base formed plains of Lava. - The little of the country I have yet seen in this vicinity is more arid & sterile than in the other Islands. - We here have another large Reptile in great numbers, -it is a great Lizard, from 10 - 15 Lb in weight & 2 - 4 ft in length, is in structure closely allied to those imps of darkness which frequent the sea-shore. - This one inhabits burrows to which it hurrys when frightened with quick & clumsy gait. - They have a ridge & spines along the back; are colored an orange yellow, with the hinder part of back brick red. - They are hideous animals; but are considered good food: This day forty were collected. -Galapagos Isds
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Island. - The whole of this has the same sterile dry appearance; is studded with the small Craters which are appendages to the great Volcanic mounds, - & from which in very many places the black Lava has flowed, the configuration of the streams being like that of so much mud. - I should think it would be difficult to find in the intertropical latitudes a piece of land 75 miles long, so entirely useless to man or the larger animals. - From the evening of this day to the 8th was most unpleasant passed in struggling to get about 50 miles to Windward against a strong current.Galapagos Isds
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