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
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