The Republican journal., 1897-12-23
After Flora and Fauna.

ed an interesting letter from his brother,
Charles NJ. Harris, who is now at the
head of the Rothschild expedition to
the Galapagos Archipelago after flora
and fauna. Mr.. Harris sailed from New
York, March 20, for Panama, in a party
to five, where they expected to charter
schooner for the trip. While there one OF
the party, the leader, died of yellow fever,
and another was sent home and died of the
same disease at quarantine, New York.
Later another member died. Cabling to
the home manager, MI. Harris received
orders to proceed to San Francisco, re or
ganize the party, charter schooner,
and proceed. This was done and the new
party, Mr.. Harris in charge, sailed June
q, from Frisco, in the schooner Lila and
Matte, arriving at the islands after 40
days passage. These islands are some
500 or 600 miles off the equator. SO faras
known no collection has been made since
that by Darwin, in 1886, and Mr.. Harris
thinks he has some new specimens. The
letter, dated at Wreck Bay, Chatham Is
land, follows:
In my usual lazy way, l am only going
to write one letter to you all. The Lila
and Matte dropped anchor in Wreck Bay,
Chatham Island, last Saturday afternoon.
dllCl ouSllollhS We WV OoehAuSN
by the Ecuadorean government represen-
tative on the island and presented with
packet of letters sent down to the vessel
by Senior Cobos from the hacienda. Mes
sers. Hull and Droune and the captain re-
ceived a goodly number, but my only one
was from my San Francisco banker, and |
can tell you | was disappointed, but on
Monday my disappointment was somewhat
alleviated by Senior Cobos himself bring
ing the letters from home; also two for
Mr.. Droune.
l suppose you would like to know how
the members of the expedition are faring
and what success we are having, SO will
begin by saying that everybody is we'll
and hopeful. We have had no sickness
or accident to speak of so far. Mr.. Hull
removed his fingers with Ratchet, and l
have been generally very poorly all sum
mer. My Panama experience came pretty
near finishing me, still think feel better
now than month ago, and hope to pull
through all right.
AS to our success, | think, barring
accidents, that it is assured. We have
now on board 30 live tortoises Of two
species and two prepared skins; about
., 900 birds have been saved so far Be
sides the tOrtoises and birds we have a
large number of two species OF iguanaS
and numbers of lizards, snakes, birds
eggs, turtles, etc. We have covered
about half of our ground, having visited
the following islands in the order named:
Culpepper, Wenman, Abingdon, Bindloe,
interchangeable, Duncan, Jerlis, James and
Chatham. From here we will 90 to Hood.
Charles, Bratte, Albem ,rle, Marl borough
Tower and Cocos, and then start for San
Els31piSp1 which w N roach abort
the middle OF March next.
Five thousand birds, so tortoises, $50
iguanas and what miscellaneous stuff We
get will make peeunlary success of the
trip. We are quite sure to get this much
if we have no accidents. 1t will be worth
about $50 600. We have so far succeeded
in getting about all the species of binds
recorded for the different islands visited,
and undoubtedly some new ones. We
have seen much that is of interest, but,
on the whole the islands have not been
exceedingly interesting. They are SO
hard to travel over that it knocks much
of the interest out of them.
On James island is an immense volcano
in a state of great activity. Mr.. Cobos
informs US that this is the first active
volcano he has known on the islands since
be first knew them in 1855. We were
anchored within four miles of it for
several days, and it was indeed a grand
sight to see it pour out its great streams
of lava molten to white heat. | have
taken a number of photographs and if
they don't spoil | shall be able to show
you some of the things | have seen on
my return.
Twenty nine of our tortOiseS were taken
from Duncan island, where it was sup
posed they were extinct. They were at
the top of the island and in the bottom of
an immense crater. The island is an i'm
mense rock heap, from the crevices of
thorn bushes and tough vines. 1t was
very hard work getting them to the YES
sci, two and half to four miles. They
had to be slung, one at time, on a pole
and two men carried the pole on their
shoulders. 1t took three weeks to get all
safely aboard. The largest one is three
feet long, girth five feet, and weighs about
125 pounds. Ten more are nearly as
large.
Here at Chatham, Idaho, Senior Cobos
has fine hacienda named Progresso. 1t
has a population of 300, about so being
women. These people are all virtually
his slaves except ten Ecuadorean sol
diers and his foreman, bookkeeper, etc.
Mr.. Cobos' house is built of bamboo,
plastered inside and out. His people live
in bamboo and cane huts. There are 500
acres in sugar cane, 1900 coffee trees,
oranges, lemons, bananas, otogs, yucca,
papellas, ETC., also many cattle, horses,
mules and sheep. There is refinery
where MI. Cobos makes sugar which he
sends to Guayquil. He also makes a good
deal of brandy. Cobos is q typical Span
lard, rich and has seen much of the
world. He was at one time know n as the
"Orchilla King in the gathering of
which he has made several fortunes. He
was driven from Mexico for smuggling
and took refuge here. He is the autocrat
of the island, and has established little
kingdom about him which he rules with a
rod of iron. He has been very pleasant
to me, entertaining me at meals, furnishing
horses, etc.
This letter will leave to- morrow or Sun
day in care the captain of small schooner
which is here from Guayquil bringing over
stuff for Cobos and taking back sugar
I like my companions very well and the
vessels crew do nicely. Don't write here
any more as l shall not again be where l
can get mail. Love to all.
Pill Sense-It stands to reason that DR..
Agnew's Liver Pills will crowd out of the
market many of the nauseous old timers. A