Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1897-12-03
AFTER FLORA AND FAUNA.
Letter from chas. n. Harris Of Az gusla, NV
IN Galapagos Archipelago.


DR.. w. H. Harris of this city. has
Just received an interesting letter from
his brother Charles NJ. Harris, who is
now at the head of the Rothschild ex-
petition to the Galapagos Archipelago
after fora and fauna
1t will be remembered that Mr.. Har-
ris sailed from New York. March 20,
for Panama. in party of 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, Nj
Harris received orders to proceed to
San Francisco, reorganize the party
cnarter 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, ar
irving at the. islands after a 4O-days'
passage.
These islands are some 500 or 600
miles off the South American coast. on
the equator. So far as known no col
lection has been made since that by
Darwin, in 1886, and Mr. Harris thinks
he has some new specimens. The let
ter dated at Wreck Bay, Chatham
Island, follows:
In my usual lazy way, am only going
to write one letter to you all. The Lila
and Matte dropped anchor in Wreck bay
Chatham Island. last Saturday afternoon
Shortly after anchoring we were boarded
by the Ecquadorean government repre-
sentative on the Island and presented with
a packet of letters sent down to the YES
sci by Senior Cobos from the hacienda.
MesSrs. Hull and Droune and the captain
received Il goodly number, but my only
one was from my San Francisco banker
and | can tell you was disappointed but
on Monday my disappointment was some
what aleviated by Senior Cobos himself
bringing the letters from home. also two
for Mr.. Droune. These had been over
looked. | judge from Marys letter that
you have all written. and | presume the
letters with others from Webster. Mr..
Rothschild and others. are in Guayquil.
and unfortunately | will not get them
now until my return to San Francisco,
where | have written the American con-
sui at Guayquil to send them. or perhaps
not at all.
! 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 well
and hopeful. We have had no sickness
or accident to speak of so far Mr. Hull
removed portion of one of his fingers
with Ratchet. and | have been gener-
ally very poorly all summer. 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. l think. barring acct
dents. that it is assured. We have now
on board 30 live tortOises of two species
and two prepared skins; about 1000 birds
have been saved so far. Besides the tor
toises and birds we have d 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 Indefati-
gable. Duncan. Jervis. James and Chat
ham. From here we will go to Hood.
Charles. Brattle. Albemarle. Marlborough.
Tower and Cocos, and then start for San
Francisco, which we expect to reach
about the middle of March next.
Five thousand birds, 30 tortoises. 15c
iguanas and what miscellaneous stuff we
get will make a pecuniary success of the
trip. We are quite sure to get this much
if we have no accidents. 1t will be worth
about $40 900. We have so far succeeded
in getting about all the species of birds
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 he first knew them, In 1888. We
were anchored within four miles of 1t for
several days, and it was indeed grand
sight to see it pour out it's great streams
of lava molten to a white heat. | nave
taken number of photographs and IL
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 al
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
which spring thick growth of cactus.
thorn bushes and tough vines. lt was
very hard work getting them to the yes
sell two and a half to four miles. They
ha1 To ha Sl, a time. a pole