It is, however, certain, that tortoises can subsist even on these islands where there is no other water than what falls during a few rainy days in the year. For some time after a visit to the springs, their urinary bladders are distended with fluid, which is said gradually to decrease in volume, and to become less pure. The inhabitants, however, always first drink the water in the pericardium, which is described as being best. The inhabitants, from observing marked individuals, consider that they travel a distance of about eight miles in two or three days. During the breeding season, when the male and female are together, the male utters a hoarse roar or bellowing, which, it is said, can be heard at the distance of more than a hundred yards. Bynoe found seven placed in a fissure. The young tortoises, as soon as they are hatched, fall a prey in great numbers to the carrionfeeding buzzard. When a tortoise is caught, the man makes a slit in the skin near its tail, so as to see inside its body, whether the fat under the dorsal plate is thick. If it is not, the animal is liberated and it is said to recover soon from this strange operation. In order to secure the tortoise, it is not sufficient to turn them like turtle, for they are often able to get on their legs again. Bibron informs me that he believes that it was distinct, as the species now living there certainly is. It is a hideouslooking creature, of a dirty black colour, stupid, and sluggish in its movements. Their tails are flattened sideways, and all four feet partially webbed. When in the water this lizard swims with perfect ease and quickness, by a serpentine movement of its body and flattened tail the legs being motionless and closely collapsed on its sides. Their limbs and strong claws are admirably adapted for crawling over the rugged and fissured masses of lava, which everywhere form the coast. In such situations, a group of six or seven of these hideous reptiles may oftentimes be seen on the black rocks, a few feet above the surf, basking in the sun with outstretched legs. If such be the case, the object of these animals occasionally going out to sea is explained. The stomach contained nothing but the seaweed. The intestines were large, as in other herbivorous animals.