LINNEAJT SOCIETY OF LONDON'. 23 



epiplastron might be regarded as more highly specialized than 

 those without ; but they occur iu the Mascareues as well as iu 

 the Sivaliks : or, if we look upon the Hat-headed Mascarene 

 races as the more generalized Ibrm, we find it equally represented 

 in the Pliocene and Pleistocene of Europe. The great ancient 

 Southern Continent, the Grondwana Land of Suess, of the e.\ist- 

 ence of which we cannot entertain any doubt, must have been 

 the birthplace of a variety of plants and animals, of terrestrial 

 A'ertebrates, possibly of gigantic Laud-Tortoises : if this be so, 

 then these Testudinata would have to be regarded, not as acci- 

 dental importations from some distant continent, but as members 

 of the autochthont Crondwaua-fauna, which spread through Asia 

 into Europe in pre-Tertiary or early Tertiary times, and survived 

 on the insular fragments of the old continent. 



However the direction in which the dispersal of the Tortoises 

 proceeded, either from the north southwards or vice versa, is a 

 secondary question which could be more profitably discussed, if 

 we knew more of the palaeontology of the Seychelles and Mada- 

 gascar. But, so much we may claim at present, that Dr. Baur's 

 theory of the origin of the Galapagos fauna, when applied to the 

 problem otfered by the Tortoises in the Indian Ocean, is actually 

 removed from the hvpothetical area, and supported by geological 

 and biological facts. It thereby has gathered strength, and 

 deserves our serious consideration. It has met with strong 

 opposition Irom some, with favour by others, of whom I will 

 mention only one of our own fellows, Mr. Hemsley*, who has 

 paid so much attention to Insular Elorast. 



Before concluding my Address I must ask you to return with 

 me once more to the small stock of Tortoises which have survived 

 to our time. I wish shortlv to refer to certain individuals that 

 are known to have been living in captivity for a long time, for 

 so many years that they carry us baek into the period when some 

 of the now extinct races were still in existence. Curiosity is 

 naturally excited as to the origin of these specimens, and the 

 race to which they belong. 



1. Perhaps the most famous of these individuals is the large 

 Tortoise which lived at Colombo for nearly a century. According 

 to one account it was brought from Java to Ceylon when this 

 island was still a Dutch possession ; according to another it came 

 direct from the Seychelles in 1708 +. It died four years ago, 



* Science Progress, v. 1896, pp. 298-302. 



t A few weeks after the delivery of this Address, the sad news of the 

 premature death of Dr. Baur reached London. He died at Munich on June 25, 

 in the fortieth year of liis age. 



\ " The Colombo Tortoise for many years belonged to my father-in-law. the 

 late Sir William Ogle Carr, Chief Justice of Ceyion, and was still in the 

 grounds of Uplands in 1882 when I saw it, and hive since seen a photo 

 tiiken at Colombo as late as 1889. This one is said to have been brought as 

 tribute to Ceylon from the Seychelles about 1798, and remained on the grounds 

 where it was "landed, descending with the Estate to ejich proprietor."— Letter to 

 Dr. Giiuther by Mr. J. Carr S. Dyer, dated Hazeley, Keuley, Jan. 12, 1893. 



