LIKNEATf SOCIETY OF LONDON. 17 



never been inhabited, and only within recent years a sfation has 

 been established on it for a few men who are engaged in industrial 

 pursuits for the lessee, who rents the island, from the Mauritian 

 Government. 



The history of the Tortoises of the Galapagos Islands is almost 

 a counterpart of that of the Iiidiun races. At the time of the 

 discovery of this Archipelago, in the sixteentli century, the 

 Tortoises were distributed in immense numbers over most of 

 the inlands ; they are now restricted to three onlv — Albemarle, 

 Duncan, and Abingdon. In the first, the largest island of the 

 group, the conditions of large tracts of the interior are similar to 

 those in Aldabra, and ofi'er to the Tortoises effective protection. 

 A search, in which four persons were engaged for ten davs, 

 rewarded Dr. Baur, who visited the island in 1S91, with the 

 capture of five adult specimens. Duncan Island seems to be 

 much more accessible and less adapted for concealment, so that 

 in all probability the life of the race peculiar to this island will 

 not be prolonged for many years ; but of this we may exj^ect to 

 receive before long positive and valuable iulormation, when the 

 results of the Kothschild expedition to the Galapagos shall be 

 made known. IS'othing is known of the state of the Tortoises in 

 Abingdon since Capt:iin Cookson's visit in 1875, There are no 

 settlements on either of the.-e islands. 



The ease with which, in a congenial climate, these large Tor- 

 toises can be kept in a state of captivity, and the regularity with 

 whicli they annually produce their progeny, have induced many 

 colonists, especially in Mauritius and the Seythelles, to add them 

 to tiieir domestic stock. They were occasionally brought thence 

 to Europe, giving rise to the belief that those islands were their 

 true and original home. However, fiom the information which 

 I obtained from residents and visitors to the Seschelles, as well 

 as from actual examination of the specimens, I came to the 

 conclusions*, first, that the whole of this domestic stock liad been 

 imported from Aldabra, or had been bred from Aldabran parents, 

 there being frequent communication between tlie two islands t; 

 and, secondly, that if the Seychelles had produced a peculiar race 

 it was extinct, like those of Mauritius, Keunion, and the other 

 Mascarenes M. T. Sauzier, whu has paid much atteiition to the 

 hisiurical aspects of the question, difiers from this view : he has 

 collected trom ancient lecords undeniable evidence that the 

 Seychelles were really occupied by Gigantic Tortoises, like the 

 other islands, and he moreover expresses it as his belief that this 

 race has left its direct descendants among the semi-domesticated 



* Gigant. Land-Tort. p. 3. 



t Caiitain F. Moresby, in a memoir on the Seychelles written in 1821, says 

 that the Land-Tortoises are very abundant in Aldabra, tkat thej- grow tu a large 

 size and are impurted to Mabe or Mauritius, where they .sell for three Spanish 

 piastres apiece (ISaut. Mag. for 1842, vi. p. G7t)) ; and <t. Harrison, in a note 

 written on the Seychelles in 1837, states that the Land-Tortoi.se is imported 

 from Aldabra and much esteemed as food by the inhabitants, but that it is 

 getting scarce (ibid, for 1839, iii. p. 443). 



LINN. see. PfiOCEEiUKUS. — SESSION 18l>7-9S. c 



