644 



REPORT OP NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1889. 



In the ease of the Mascarene tortoises tbis is not so singular, as 

 Mauritius, Bourbon, and Rodriguez are some distance apart; but the 

 Galapagos tortoises inhabit islands most of which are in sight of one ' 

 another, and some separated by only 8 or 10 miles of sea. 



0* Abingdon 

 Bindloes O Tower 



\Jam.ea 



Narborotigny ) £ — ; *^-Jndefa.hga6le 



Bamrvgton, C^J 

 Albemarle Chatham 



Cha «es H ^ 



Map 6— The distribution of Galapagos Tortoises. 



The exception noted above to the rule that a given island possesses 

 but a single species of tortoise, is Albemarle Island, which has two, but 

 in this instance the island is divided by lava streams whose broken ir- 

 regular surfaces present impassible barriers to such creatures as tor- 

 toises. It is unfortunate, in view of the interest attached to the subject, 

 that the exact locality of many of the tortoises brought from the Gala- 

 pagos Islands should be unknown, the more that unless the problem 

 of their distribution is soon settled it never can be. Dr. Gunther 

 enumerates six species, the first two of which are certainly known to 

 have come from the islands assigned to them, two are in a measure 

 conjectural, and two are unknown. Three, probably four, species are 

 in the collection of the U. S. National Museum, but in this case a little 

 uncertainty hangs over the exact locality they came from, owing to the 

 fact that several were obtained at Chatham Island, whither they were 

 brought from other islands of the archipelago. One very large indi- 

 vidual, however, was obtained at Abingdon Island, where the tortoises 

 are probably extinct, the weathered skeleton having fortunately been 

 preserved in a tolerably complete condition. The Galapagos tortoises 

 are vegetable feeders, living largely on succulent cactus, which serves 

 the double purpose of food and driuk. They are very fond of water, 

 and although seeming to thrive on the smaller islands which are with- 

 out springs, make long pilgrimages to reach the wells on the upper 

 portions of the large islands. Although the tortoises travel day and 

 night while on these journeys, owing to their proverbially slow rate of 

 speed (three or four miles an hour) it requires two or three days to 

 make the trip. Regular roads, similar to those that would be made by 

 a low-bodied cart, branch out from the springs in every direction, lead- 

 ing from them to the coast, and it was by following up these well-trav- 

 eled paths that the Spaniards first discovered the watering places. 

 These tortoises are currently reported to be totally deaf, aud Porter 



