366 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES [Proc. 4th See. 



July 9, 1906. — Sailed for Barrington Island about 5 a. m. 

 and arrived at 11 a. m. Captain Levick, of the schooner that 

 runs between the islands, informed us that thirty years ago 

 tortoises were found scattered all over Barrington, and that 

 he had taken them off that island. He doubted very much 

 whether we would find any as, he says, they were all killed 

 off long ago. We landed after dinner and proceeded on a tor- 

 toise hunt. For lack of time, we could not go far or cover 

 much ground, but we had good luck. Beck found some old 

 bones, and Mr. Nelson, the mate, found two old eggs on the 

 north side of the island. He said they were near an iguana's 

 hole, whence they had been dug out and were lying on the 

 ground. They appear to be not more than a year old. We 

 are going in again tomorrow. Mr. Nelson says he will try to 

 find the spot again where he took the eggs, and we will dig 

 down and see if any more can be found. He was in too much 

 of a hurry to look, as it was nearly dark and he was heading 

 for the boat at full speed. 



July 10, 1906. — Made another search for tortoises, but 

 found no live ones. Beck found some more bones on the 

 higher portions of the north end of the island. He mentions 

 having seen a very old piece of dung yesterday. Mr. Nelson 

 tried to find the place where he found the old eggs, but failed 

 to do so. We have come to the conclusion that the eggs prob- 

 ably are more than a year old, and were lately dug up by 

 iguanas and exposed to the sun. King and I visited the valleys 

 on the north coast, but found no signs whatever of tortoises. 



GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 



The various races of tortoises of the Galapagos Islands 

 differ from one another chiefly in shape. There are no real 

 differences in structure, such as are found in the lizards and 

 snakes of the archipelago. The relative values which should 

 be attached to these differences in shape are extremely dif- 

 ficult to estimate. Therefore the tortoises do not throw much 

 light upon the history and development of the archipelago. 

 Some points, however, are of considerable interest. 



Tortoises either live, or are known to have lived, upon 

 Abingdon, Chatham, Hood, Charles, Barrington, Indefatiga- 



