THE GALAPAGOS TORTOISES. 265 



Gebirge von Stid-Albemarle, ohne das man wtiszte wie sie dorthin gekommen 

 sind " (Ein Besuch der Galapagos = Inseln, p. 31) . Floreana was the name given 

 by Villamiel to Santa Maria (Charles). Young tortoises of which one might 

 carry a number in his pocket presented no such difficulties as cattle in way of 

 distribution. Cattle like most tortoises are tolerably expert at swimming. 



Sailors are fond of pets and a young tortoise or even a giant is an unfailing 

 attraction to them. Undoubtedly they have helped to bring about the puzzling 

 mixtures now gathered in various museums. The islands were frequently 

 visited before the year 1800, but no attempt was made at colonization. Watkins, 

 a sailor, was said to have been marooned for nearly a year, 1808, on Santa Maria. 

 Villamiel's colony of 1832, on the same island, numbered several hundred people 

 in 1835 and at this time they had continued the destruction of the multitudes 

 of tortoises so effectively that the settlers were drawing supplies from other 

 islands. The Beagle, 1835, got specimens from three of the islands, Santa 

 Maria (Charles), San Cristobal (Chatham) San Salvador (James), mostly 

 young, apparently of a single species or so very young experts were unable to 

 distinguish the species. This colony on Santa Maria was a penal colony. Wolf, 

 1879, says it soon melted away until finally "der Rest der zuletzt ubriggeblie- 

 benden Rauberbande rieb sich zum Theil selbst auf, zum Theil entwich er auf 

 den anlegenden Schiffen der Wallfischf anger " (Ein Besuch, p. 4), and for a 

 long time no traces of the colony had existed. Darwin, 1839, p. 457 says of 

 Charles (Santa Maria), "the main article of animal food is derived from the 

 tortoise. Their numbers in this island have of course been greatly reduced, 

 but the people yet reckon on two days' hunting supplying food for the rest of 

 the week." In the seventies Baldisan established a small colony on Santa 

 Maria. He was killed by the colonists about eight years later; after his death 

 this island was deserted. In 1865 Cobos landed a party on San Cristobal 

 (Chatham) to gather Orchilla, a lichen used as a dyestuff; these remained till 

 1869, when they left the island. Ten years later Cobos returned to San Cristobal 

 with more than a hundred men and founded a colony which appeared prosperous 

 in 1891, and which may yet be in existence. The work of the colony was not 

 limited to the island upon which it settled; it drew supplies from the other is- 

 lands. The meat hunters, the oil collectors, and the orchilla pickers passed 

 from island to island so frequently that it is not to be expected that any of the 

 islands has its own unmixed race of tortoises, unaffected by mixtures from others. 

 The older specimens, those secured before the exploitation of the islands, are 

 perhaps the least likely to be suspected of being hybridized or mongrelized by 



