14 TESTUDINATA. TESTUDINIDiE. 



Testudo nigra of Quoy and Gaimard. In these 

 equinoctial islands it has been abundant from the 

 time of Dampier, who observes, that five or six 

 hundred men might subsist on them for several 

 months without any other sort of provisions, add- 

 ing, that they are so extraordinarily large and fat, 

 and so sweet that no pullets eat more pleasantly. 



The day on which Mr. Darwin visited the little 

 craters in the Galapagos Archipelago was glowing 

 hot, and the scrambling over the rough surface, 

 and through the intricate thickets, was very 

 fatiguing. " But," says Mr. Darwin, " I was well 

 repaid by the Cyclopean scene. In my \^alk I 

 met two large Tortoises, each of which must have 

 weighed at least two hundred pounds. One was 

 eating a piece of cactus, and when I approached 

 it looked at me, and then quietly walked away ; 

 the other gave a deep hiss, and drew in his head. 

 These huge reptiles, surrounded by the black 

 lava, the leafless shrubs, and large cacti, appeared 

 to my fancy like some antediluvian animals." 



Mr. Darwin states his belief that these Tor- 

 toises are found in all the islands of the Archi- 

 pelago ; certainly in the greater number ; and thus 

 continues his description: — "They frequent, in 

 preference, the high damp parts, but likewise in- 

 habit the lower and arid districts. Some indi- 

 viduals grow to an immense size. Mr. Lawson, 

 an Englishman, who had, at the time of our visit, 

 charge of the colony, told us that he had seen 

 several so large that it required six or eight men 

 to lift them from the ground, and that some had 

 afforded as much as two hundred pounds of meat. 

 The old males are the largest, the females rarely 

 growing to so great a size. The male can readily 



