One
Was Eating A Piece Of Cactus, And As I Approached, It Stared
At Me And Slowly Walked Away; The Other Gave A Deep Hiss,
And Drew In Its Head.
These huge reptiles, surrounded by
the black lava, the leafless shrubs, and large cacti, seemed to
my fancy like some antediluvian animals.
The few dull-
coloured birds cared no more for me than they did for the
great tortoises.
23rd. - The Beagle proceeded to Charles Island. This
archipelago has long been frequented, first by the bucaniers,
and latterly by whalers, but it is only within the last six
years, that a small colony has been established here. The
inhabitants are between two and three hundred in number;
they are nearly all people of colour, who have been banished
for political crimes from the Republic of the Equator, of
which Quito is the capital. The settlement is placed about
four and a half miles inland, and at a height probably of a
thousand feet. In the first part of the road we passed
through leafless thickets, as in Chatham Island. Higher up,
the woods gradually became greener; and as soon as we
crossed the ridge of the island, we were cooled by a fine
southerly breeze, and our sight refreshed by a green and
thriving vegetation. In this upper region coarse grasses and
ferns abound; but there are no tree-ferns: I saw nowhere
any member of the palm family, which is the more singular,
as 360 miles northward, Cocos Island takes its name from
the number of cocoa-nuts. The houses are irregularly scattered
over a flat space of ground, which is cultivated with
sweet potatoes and bananas. It will not easily be imagined
how pleasant the sight of black mud was to us, after having
been so long, accustomed to the parched soil of Peru and
northern Chile. The inhabitants, although complaining of
poverty, obtain, without much trouble, the means of subsistence.
In the woods there are many wild pigs and goats;
but the staple article of animal food is supplied by the
tortoises. Their numbers have of course been greatly reduced
in this island, but the people yet count on two days'
hunting giving them food for the rest of the week. It is
said that formerly single vessels have taken away as many
as seven hundred, and that the ship's company of a frigate
some years since brought down in one day two hundred
tortoises to the beach.
September 29th. - We doubled the south-west extremity of
Albemarle Island, and the next day were nearly becalmed
between it and Narborough Island. Both are covered with
immense deluges of black naked lava, which have flowed either
over the rims of the great caldrons, like pitch over the
rim of a pot in which it has been boiled, or have burst forth
from smaller orifices on the flanks; in their descent they
have spread over miles of the sea-coast. On both of these
islands, eruptions are known to have taken place; and in
Albemarle, we saw a small jet of smoke curling from the
summit of one of the great craters. In the evening we
anchored in Bank's Cove, in Albemarle Island. The next
morning I went out walking. To the south of the broken
tuff-crater, in which the Beagle was anchored, there was
another beautifully symmetrical one of an elliptic form; its
longer axis was a little less than a mile, and its depth about
500 feet. At its bottom there was a shallow lake, in the
middle of which a tiny crater formed an islet. The day was
overpoweringly hot, and the lake looked clear and blue: I
hurried down the cindery slope, and, choked with dust,
eagerly tasted the water - but, to my sorrow, I found it salt
as brine.
The rocks on the coast abounded with great black lizards,
between three and four feet long; and on the hills, an ugly
yellowish-brown species was equally common. We saw many of this
latter kind, some clumsily running out of the way, and others
shuffling into their burrows. I shall presently describe in
more detail the habits of both these reptiles. The whole of
this northern part of Albemarle Island is miserably sterile.
October 8th. - We arrived at James Island: this island, as
well as Charles Island, were long since thus named after our
kings of the Stuart line. Mr. Bynoe, myself, and our servants
were left here for a week, with provisions and a tent,
whilst the Beagle went for water. We found here a party
of Spaniards, who had been sent from Charles Island to dry
fish, and to salt tortoise-meat. About six miles inland, and
at the height of nearly 2000 feet, a hovel had been built in
which two men lived, who were employed in catching tortoises,
whilst the others were fishing on the coast. I paid
this party two visits, and slept there one night. As in the
other islands, the lower region was covered by nearly leafless
bushes, but the trees were here of a larger growth than
elsewhere, several being two feet and some even two feet nine
inches in diameter. The upper region being kept damp by
the clouds, supports a green and flourishing vegetation. So
damp was the ground, that there were large beds of a coarse
cyperus, in which great numbers of a very small water-rail
lived and bred. While staying in this upper region, we lived
entirely upon tortoise-meat: the breast-plate roasted (as the
Gauchos do _carne con cuero_), with the flesh on it, is very
good; and the young tortoises make excellent soup; but
otherwise the meat to my taste is indifferent.
One day we accompanied a party of the Spaniards in
their whale-boat to a salina, or lake from which salt is
procured. After landing, we had a very rough walk over a
rugged field of recent lava, which has almost surrounded a
tuff-crater, at the bottom of which the salt-lake lies.
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