respect from our mocking-bird, would feed within a few feet of us, and the turtle-doves were killed in great numbers by our people, with short poles. Hood's Island is evidently of volcanic origin. It is, indeed, nothing but a mass of cinders. It is covered with a slight growth of scrubby bushes of various kinds, and occasionally a tree of four or five inches in diameter, is met with. Of all its vegetation, the cactus seems best adapted to it. There is a variety of the species; one of which attains to a larger size than any other production of the island, and spreads out into a tree of considerable height. This kind of the cactus is chosen by the turtle for food. When the whalers, or other visiters, go to the Gallapagos Islands for these animals, they cut down a number of the trees in the evening, and on the following morning they are sure to find turtle feeding there, although none could be seen in its vicinity on the preceding day. The guanas are not the least remarkable of the inhabitants of the Gallapagos. They are from two to three feet long and shaped like a lizard. Their colour varies from grey to jet black. They are easily caught and quite harmless; are often eaten and said to be excellent. On the top of the head they have a beautiful shining crest of black and yellow, which, in the sun, has a most brilliant appearance. Except where we anchored, a heavy surf breaks all round Hood's Island. In a high and central part of it, is a place which resembles the dry bed of a small lake. It is surrounded by ridges and peaks of cinders rising in some places from one to three hundred feet, and in all probability has been the crater of a volcano. In places difficult of access we saw a few seals, but so shy that with the exception of one or two instances, we could not approach them. The few that we killed were hair seal, and consequently of but little value. Between Hood's Island and the small one that forms the harbour, there is a passage for ships, but it is very narrow, and with a strong current that runs through it, which would always render it dangerous for a ship to attempt to pass, particularly so if the wind were not perfectly fair.