Dr. A. Gttnther on Gigantic Land- Tortoises. 311 



come to my knowledge ; but I have since obtained such of species 

 of both Spermophilus and Georyckus, the latter nearly allied to, 

 if not identical with, the Siberian Lemming (Georychas aspalax), 

 from a deposit of lacustrine brick-earth near Salisbury, associated 

 with Elephas primigenius. The Lemmings, I may remark, belong 

 to the family of "Voles" (Arvicolidce), not of "Hares " (Leporidce) ; 

 but the fossil from " the surface of the cave-earth far in the Rein- 

 deer gallery" of the Brixham Cave (Report, p. 558) appears from 

 the figures (plate xlvi. figs. 12, 13) to be rightly referred to 

 Lagomys, and to the same species determined and named (p. 213, 

 figs. 82, 83, 84) in the ' British Fossil Mammals ' (1846). The 

 specimen submitted to me by Dr. Bucldaud was found by the 

 Rev. Mr. M'Enery in Kent's Hole, Torquay, and includes a larger 

 portion of the skull than the specimen figured in the "Report" 

 from the Brixham Cave. It is evidently a Pika, or tailless Hare, 

 not a Lemming. And the determination of the original or first 

 evidence of Lagomys spelceus, now in the British Museum, led me 

 also to remark : — " None of the circumstances attending its dis- 

 covery, nor any character deducible from its colour or chemical 

 state, indicate it to be an older fossil than the jaws and teeth of 

 the Hares, Rabbits, Field-voles, or Water-voles already described ; 

 yet it unquestionably attests the former existence in England of a 

 species of rodent, whose genus not only is unrepresented at the 

 present day in our British fauna, but has long ceased to exist in 

 any part of the Continent of Europe " (' British Fossil Mammals,' 

 p. 213). The Lemmings still disturb, by their multitudinous 

 migratory swarms, the husbandmen of Scandinavia. 



June 18, 1874. — Joseph Dalton Hooker, C.B., President in the 



Chair. 



" Description of the Living and Extinct Races of Gigantic Land- 

 Tortoises. — Parts I. and II. Introduction, and the Tortoises of the 

 Galapagos Islands." By Dr. Albert Gunthee, F.R.S. 



The author having had the opportunity of examining a con- 

 siderable collection of the remains of Tortoises found in the islands 

 of Mauritius and Rodriguez associated with the bones of the Dodo 

 and Solitaire, has arrived at the following conclusions : — 



1. These remains clearly indicate the former existence of several 

 species of gigantic Land-Tortoises, the Rodriguez species differing 

 more markedly from those of the Mauritius than these latter 

 among themselves. All these species appear to have become 

 extinct in modern times. 



2. These extinct Tortoises of the Mascarenes are distinguished 

 by a flat cranium, truncated beak, and a broad bridge between the 

 foramina obturatoria. 



3. All the other examples of gigantic Tortoises preserved in our 

 museums, and said to have been brought from the Mascarenes, and 

 likewise the single species which is known still to survive, in a 



