Vol. II, Pt. I] VAN DENBURGH—GALAPAGOS TORTOISES 223 



under a quite similar climate, rising to a nearly equal height, 

 would have been differently tenanted; but we shall soon see 

 that this is the case. It is the fate of most voyagers, no 

 sooner to discover what is most interesting in any locality 

 than they are hurried from it; but I ought, perhaps, to be 

 thankful that I obtained sufficient materials to establish this 

 most remarkable fact in the distribution of organic beings. 



"The inhabitants, as I have said, state that they can distin- 

 guish the tortoises from the different islands; and that they 

 differ not only in size, but in other characters. Captain 

 Porter has described those from Charles and from the nearest 

 island to it, namely. Hood Island, as having their shells in 

 front thick and turned up like a Spanish saddle, while the 

 tortoises from James Island are rounder, blacker, and have a 

 better taste when cooked. M. Bibron, moreover, informs me 

 that he has seen what he considers two distinct species of tor- 

 toise from- the Galapagos, but he does not know from which 

 islands. The specimens that I brought from three islands were 

 young ones; and probably owing to this cause, neither Mr. 

 Gray nor myself could find in them any specific differences. 



"I will first describe the habits of the tortoise (Testudo 

 nigra, formerly called Indica), which has been so frequently 

 alluded to. These animals are found, I believe, on all the 

 islands of the archipelago ; certainly on the greater number. 

 They frequent in preference the high damp parts, but they 

 likewise live in the lower and arid districts. I have already 

 shown, from the numbers which have been caught in a single 

 day, how very numerous they must be. Some grow to an 

 immense size : Mr. Lawson, an Englishman, and Vice-Governor 

 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 grow- 

 ing to so great a size; the male can readily be distinguished 

 from the female by the greater length of its tail. The tor- 

 toises which live on those islands where there is no water, or 

 in the lower and arid parts of the others, feed chiefly on the 

 succulent cactus. Those which frequent the higher and damp 

 regions eat the leaves of various trees, a kind of berry (called 

 guayavita) which is acid and austere, and likewise a pale 



