172 NEW YORK ZOOEOGICAL SOCIEGY. 
can get from the cactus leaves, as do the species on Abingdon, 
Duncan, and Indefatigable, at least to a large extent. 
It seems remarkable that soft-tongued tortoises should be able 
to eat the sharp-spined cactus leaves, but that they do so, and 
greatly relish them, is proven on several islands by the way the 
cactus leaves and blossoms disappear from under the trees. On 
the north end of Albemarle, where still another species is found, 
we noticed several small cacti, the growing leaves of which had 
been partly eaten by tortoises. 
On Duncan Island, a few miles from Albemarle, lives Tes- 
tudo ephippium, the species with which I first became acquainted, 
and the remembrance of my first sight of a Galapagos tortoise 
in his native haunts will never be forgotten. 
After climbing at least 1,500 feet up the mountain, we came 
to an extinct crater, filled with a growth of bushes and trees. 
The floor of the crater was several hundred feet below us, and 
the steep sides, covered with loose rocks and thorny bushes, 
made the descent very difficult. After reaching the bottom, the 
members of our party separated, and each of us went looking 
about independently to find a tortoise. We had seen a number 
of wallows where tortoises had been lying in the mud, and each 
member of the party was on the alert to find the first living 
specimen. 
I wandered through narrow lanes, over little grassy meadows, 
and sometimes went under bushes on hands and knees to avoid 
their thorns. The high walls of the crater towered aloft all 
around me, and the intense stillness of the place was broken only 
by the drone of a cricket. I easily imagined we were back in a 
bygone age, and then, as a large tortoise, with neck outstretched, 
ponderously appeared from behind a thick bush, I felt that it 
would not be surprising to see a pterodactyl come flying over 
the rim of the crater, or a megalosaurus rise out of the bushes 
near by. 
We found several tortoises in that crater, and after consider- 
able search, discovered a steep trail leading up to the mountain- 
top. Going up this trail the next day, a large tortoise was found 
placidly devouring a fallen cactus limb. Ona hillside farther on, 
the trails from one cactus tree to another were as plain and as 
well worn as cattle trails are on a well-stocked range in Cali- 
fornia. 
We soon learned that the easiest way to get about through 
the thick brush was to use the tortoise trails, even to the extent 
of crawling part of the time. This island (Duncan), being much 
