Hence Broad And
Well-Beaten Paths Branch Off In Every Direction From The
Wells Down To The Sea-Coast; And The Spaniards By Following
Them Up, First Discovered The Watering-Places.
When I landed
at Chatham Island, I could not imagine what animal travelled
so methodically along well-chosen tracks.
Near the springs
it was a curious spectacle to behold many of these huge
creatures, one set eagerly travelling onwards with outstretched
necks, and another set returning, after having
drunk their fill. When the tortoise arrives at the spring,
quite regardless of any spectator, he buries his head in the
water above his eyes, and greedily swallows great mouthfuls,
at the rate of about ten in a minute. The inhabitants say
each animal stays three or four days in the neighbourhood
of the water, and then returns to the lower country; but
they differed respecting the frequency of these visits. The
animal probably regulates them according to the nature of
the food on which it has lived. 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.
I believe it is well ascertained, that the bladder of the frog
acts as a reservoir for the moisture necessary to its existence:
such seems to be the case with the tortoise. 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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 590 of 776
Words from 158055 to 158311
of 208183
