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.
The water is only three or four inches deep, and rests on a layer of
beautifully crystallized, white salt. The lake is quite circular, and
is fringed with a border of bright green succulent plants; the almost
precipitous walls of the crater are clothed with wood, so that the
scene was altogether both picturesque and curious. A few years since,
the sailors belonging to a sealing-vessel murdered their captain in
this quiet spot; and we saw his skull lying among the bushes.
During the greater part of our stay of a week, the sky was cloudless,
and if the trade-wind failed for an hour, the heat became very
oppressive. On two days, the thermometer within the tent stood for
some hours at 93 degs.; but in the open air, in the wind and sun, at
only 85 degs. The sand was extremely hot; the thermometer placed in
some of a brown colour immediately rose to 137 degs., and how much
above that it would have risen, I do not know, for it was not graduated
any higher. The black sand felt much hotter, so that even in thick
boots it was quite disagreeable to walk over it.
The natural history of these islands is eminently curious, and well
deserves attention. Most of the organic productions are aboriginal
creations, found nowhere else; there is even a difference between the
inhabitants of the different islands; yet all show a marked
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