Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/249

Rh all but one, a species of Sula, from the constant rain that prevailed for twelve days after leaving the Gallipagos. Among them were two kinds of Pelican, four of Sula, and four Hawks (one of the latter was particularly fine, of nearly an orange color), and a very small Pigeon. A species of rock cod was so abundant near the shore as to be taken without any bait, and the sharks were so voracious as to bite continually at the oars, as their points were raised from the water. The woods teemed with land tortoises; some weighed 400 pounds, and the shores with turtle. With my collection of plants I was almost as unfortunate as that of birds—out of the 175 species which I gathered I could save but fifty, and these in a very miserable state, as I had no place below in the vessel where I might store them, nor could I pack them damp, and the rain ruined everything exposed on the deck. There was nothing, however, which I regretted so much as the destruction of a specimen of a new Lacerta, from twenty to thirty inches long, of a dark orange color, and with a rough, warty skin. We had made good soup of these creatures when upon the island. Never did I experience greater mortification than from the loss of these collections, the Gallipagos have been so little visited by scientific persons, that everything becomes of interest which is brought from thence, and I have now little or nothing to show that I have been there! I have, however, secured seeds, in a good state, of a very singular species of Cactus, which grows in the valleys. The trunk is two or three feet in diameter, and from forty to fifty feet high; it belongs to the section Opuntia, and has large bright yellow flowers, and very long flexible spines. Also of a fine Gossypium or cotton plant, which is a shrub four to ten feet high, with yellow blossoms and yellow cotton; and of a plant which will probably be found to belong to the Coniferae. The thermometer stood frequently at 96 degrees. and the heat was most oppressive; one occasion, when the rain ceased for an hour, and the sun broke forth, it raised such a steam from the ground as proved almost suffocating.

After leaving James's Island, we passed along the east