394 GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO. [CHAP. xvn. 



islands to a considerable extent are inhabited by a different set 

 of beings. My attention was first called to this fact by the Vice- 

 Governor, Mr. Lavvson, declaring that the tortoises differed from 

 the different islands, arid that he could with certainty tell from 

 which island any one was brought. I did not for some time 

 pay sufficient attention to this statement, and I had already par- 

 tially mingled together the collections from two of the islands. 

 I never dreamed that islands, about fifty or sixty miles apart, and 

 most of them in sight of each other, formed of precisely the same 

 rocks, placed 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 remark- 

 able fact in the distribution of organic beings. 



The inhabitants, as I have said, state that they can distinguish 

 the tortoises from the different islands ; and that they differ not 

 only in size, but in other characters. Captain Porter has de- 

 scribed * 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, whilst 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 con- 

 siders two distinct species of tortoise 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 have remarked that the marine Amblyrhynchus 

 was larger at Albemarle Island than elsewhere ; and M. Bibron 

 informs me that he has seen two distinct aquatic species of this 

 genus ; so that the different islands probably have their repre- 

 sentative species or races of the Amblyrhynchus, as well as of the 

 tortoise. My attention was first thoroughly aroused, by compar- 

 ing together the numerous specimens, shot by myself and several 

 other parties on board, of the mocking-thrushes, when, to my 

 astonishment, I discovered that all those from Charles Island 



* Voyage in the U. S, ship Essex, vol. i. p. 215. 



