Page:Colnett - Voyage to the South Pacific (IA cihm 33242).djvu/188

 which in whatever way it was dreed, was conidered by all of us as the mot delicious food we had ever tated. The fat of thee animals when melted down, was equal to freh butter; thoe which weighed from thirty to forty pounds, were the bet, and yielded two quarts of fat: ome of the larget, when tanding on their feet, meaured near a yard from the lower part of the neck. As they advance in age their hell becomes proportionably thin, and I have een them in uch a tate, that a pebble would hatter them. I alted everal of the middle ize, with ome of the eggs, which are quite round, and as big as thoe of a gooe, and brought them to England. The mot extraordinary animal in this iland is the ea guana, which, indeed abounds in all thee iles. We did not ee the land guana in any of the iles but James's, and it differs from that which I have een on the coat of Guinea, in having a kind of comb on the back of its neck.

Thee iles deerve the attention of the Britih navigators beyond any unettled ituation: but the preference mut be given to James's Ile, as it is the only one we found ufficient freh water at to upply a mall hip. But Chatham Ile being one of the Southernmot, I recommend to be the firt made, in order to acertain the hip's true