The larger islands alone possess springs, and
these are always situated towards the central parts, and at a
considerable height. The tortoises, therefore, which frequent the
lower districts, when thirsty, are obliged to travel from a long
distance. 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.
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