showers, and in their summer, which is in May, June, July, and August, they are without any rains. They anchored near several of these islands, and frequently found sea tortoises basking in the sun at noon. On a former occasion, Captain Davies came to anchor on the west side of these islands, where he and his men subsisted on land-tortoises for three months, and saved from them sixty jars of oil. He also found several good channels on that side, with anchorage between the isles, and several rivulets of fresh water, with plenty of trees for fuel. The sea also round these islands is well stored with good fish of a large size, and abounds in sharks. These islands are better stored with guanoes and land-tortoises than any other part of the world. The guanoes are very tame, of extraordinary size, and very fat. The land-tortoises are likewise very fat, and so numerous that several hundred men might subsist upon them for a considerable time. They are as pleasant food as a pullet, and so large that some of them weighed 150 and even 200 pounds, being two feet to two feet and a half across the belly; whereas in other places they are seldom met with above 30 pounds weight. There are several kinds of land-tortoises in the West Indies, one of which, called _Hackatee_ by the Spaniards, keeps mostly in fresh-water ponds, having long necks, small legs, and flat feet, and is usually between ten and fifteen pounds weight. A second, and much smaller kind, which they call _Tenopen_,[153] is somewhat rounder, but not unlike in other respects, except that their back shells are naturally covered with curious carved work. The tortoises in the Gallapagos isles resembles the _Hackatee_, having long necks and small heads, but are much larger. [Footnote 153: This word in the text is probably a misprint for _Terrapin_, a trivial name for a species of land or fresh-water tortoise, found also in the warmer parts of North America--E.]