*7 GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO. [csAP.xvti. 



numerous, but the numbers of individuals of each species are extra- 

 ordinarily great There is one small lizard belonging to a South 

 American genus, and two species (and probably more) of the Ambly- 

 rhynchus a genus confined to the Galapagos islands. There is one 

 snake which is numerous ; it is identical, as I am informed by M. 

 Bibron, with the Psammophis Temminckii from Chile. Of sea-turtle I 

 believe there is more than one species ; and of tortoises there are, as 

 we shall presently show, two or three species or races. Of toads and 

 frogs there are none : I was surprised at this, considering how well 

 suited for them the temperate and damp upper woods appeared to be. 

 It recalled to my mind the remark made by Bory St. Vincent,* namely, 

 that none of this family are found on any of the volcanic islands in the 

 great oceans. As far as I can ascertain from various works, this seems 

 to hold good throughout the Pacific, and even in the large islands of the 

 Sandwich archipelago. Mauritius offers an apparent exception, where 

 I saw the Rana Mascariensis in abundance : this frog is said now to 

 inhabit the Seychelles, Madagascar, and Bourbon ; but on the other 

 hand, Du Bois, in his voyage in 1669, states that there were no reptiles 

 in Bourbon except tortoises ; and the Officier du Roi asserts that before 

 1768 it had been attempted, without success, to introduce frogs into 

 Mauritius I presume, for the purpose of eating : hence it may be well 

 doubted whether this frog is an aboriginal of these islands. The 

 absence of the frog family in the oceanic islands is the more remarkable, 

 when contrasted with the case of lizards, which swarm on most of the 

 smallest islands. May this difference not be caused by the greater 

 facility with which the eggs of lizards, protected by calcareous shells, 

 might be transported through salt-water, than could the slimy spawn of 

 frogs ? 



I will first describe the habits of the tortoise (Testudo nigra, formerly 

 called Indica), which has been so frequently alluded to. These animals 

 >re 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 growing to so great a size : the male can readily be distinguished 

 from the female by the greater length of its tail. The tortoises 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 



* " Voyage aux Quatre lies d'Afrique." With respect to the Sandwich 

 Islands, see Tyerman and Bennett's "Journal," vol. i., p. 434. For Mauritius, 

 see "Voyage par un Officier," etc., part i., p. 170. There are no frogs in 

 the Canary Islands (Webb et Berthelot, "Hist. Nat. des lies Canaries"). 

 I saw none U St J*go in the Cape de Verds. There are none at St 

 Helena. 



