172 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



can get from the cactus leaves, as do the species on Abingdon, 

 Duncan, and Indefatigable, at least to a large extent. 



It seems remarkable that soft-tongued tortoises should be able 

 to eat the sharp-spined cactus leaves, but that they do so, and 

 greatly relish them, is proven on several islands by the way the 

 cactus leaves and blossoms disappear from under the trees. On 

 the north end of Albemarle, where still another species is found, 

 we noticed several small cacti, the growing leaves of which had 

 been partly eaten by tortoises. 



On Duncan Island, a few miles from Albemarle, lives Tes- 

 tiido ephippium, the species with which I first became acquainted, 

 and the remembrance of my first sight of a Galapagos tortoise 

 in his native haunts will never be forgotten. 



After climbing at least 1,500 feet up the mountain, we came 

 to an extinct crater, filled with a growth of bushes and trees. 

 The floor of the crater was several hundred feet below us, and 

 the steep sides, covered with loose rocks and thorny bushes, 

 made the descent very difficult. After reaching the bottom, the 

 members of our party separated, and each of us went looking 

 about independently to find a tortoise. We had seen a number 

 of wallows where tortoises had been lying in the mud, and each 

 member of the party was on the alert to find the first living 

 specimen. 



I wandered through narrow lanes, over little grassy meadows, 

 and sometimes went under bushes on hands and knees to avoid 

 their thorns. The high walls of the crater towered aloft all 

 around me, and the intense stillness of the place was broken only 

 by the drone of a cricket. I easily imagined we were back in a 

 bygone age, and then, as a large tortoise, with neck outstretched, 

 ponderously appeared from behind a thick bush, I felt that it 

 would not be surprising to see a pterodactyl come flying over 

 the rim of the crater, or a megalosaurus rise out of the bushes 

 near by. 



We found several tortoises in that crater, and after consider- 

 able search, discovered a steep trail leading up to the mountain- 

 top. Going up this trail the next day, a large tortoise was found 

 placidly devouring a fallen cactus limb. On a hillside farther on, 

 the trails from one cactus tree to another were as plain and as 

 well worn as cattle trails are on a well-stocked range in Cali- 

 fornia. 



We soon learned that the easiest way to get about through 

 the thick brush was to use the tortoise trails, even to the extent 

 of crawling part of the time. This island (Duncan), being much 



