Besides, the fat of these creatures would serve, at need, to warm the cavern and feed the cooking-stove.

Our most formidable enemy would be the cold, and we must fight it by every means within our power.

It remained to be seen whether the amphibia would not forsake Halbrane Land at the approach of winter, and seek a less rigorous climate in lower latitudes.

Fortunately there were hundreds of other animals to secure our little company from hunger, and even from thirst, at need.

The beach was the home of numbers of galapagos--a kind of turtle so called from an archipelago in the equinoctial sea, where also they abound, and mentioned by Arthur Pym as supplying food to the islanders, It will be remembered that Pym and Peters found three of these galapagos in the native boat which carried them away from Tsalal Island.
The movement of these huge creatures is slow, heavy, and waddling; they have thin necks two feet long, triangular snake-like heads, and can go without food for very long periods.
Arthur Pym has compared the antarctic turtles to dromedaries, because, like those ruminants, they have a pouch just where the neck begins, which contains from two to three gallons of cold fresh water.