374 CHELONIA CHAP. 



the western Indian ocean. The existence of this, "Lemuria" or 

 " Gondwana," came to an end in Mid-Tertiary times. The large 

 tortoises on the remaining continents died out in any case they 

 are gone, while those which lived on, or retreated to, what became 

 the present islands, survived and flourished. 



The tortoises were not left in peace with the advent of man, 

 who found that they were good to eat. They were first ex- 

 terminated on the Mascarene Islands. In 1759 four small 

 vessels were specially appointed for the service of bringing 

 tortoises from Rodriguez to Mauritius ; one vessel carried a 

 cargo of 6000 ; and altogether more than 30,000 were imported 

 into Mauritius within the space of eighteen months. Dr. Giinther 

 very properly remarks that many of these tortoises must have 

 been small-sized specimens, and that many of them were probably 

 used for provisioning passing Government vessels. Anyhow an 

 inter-insular traffic was carried on, and there are records of 

 superfluous tortoises having been turned loose, at the end of the 

 voyage, in distant islands, even in Java. Importation and 

 exchange of choice specimens, by way of presents, seems also to 

 have taken place. All this makes it now actually impossible 

 to trace the original habitat of the few surviving specimens 

 with anything like certainty. At the beginning of this century 

 the large tortoises had been nearly cleared off most of the islands, 

 and at the present time only the south island of Aldabra enjoys 

 the reputation of still possessing some really indigenous tortoises. 

 The few survivors on the other islands are said to have been intro- 

 duced. The small stock at Aldabra is now under Government 

 protection. Representatives of various species will linger on for 

 a little time to come, when they are kept as pets on some tropical 

 islands, but those which have been brought to Europe are of course 

 doomed. 



We can mention only a few of the large tortoises which 

 have become famous, not to say historical. A fascinating resume 

 of the whole complicated question has been given by Dr. 

 Giinther. 1 



Testudo gigantea s. elephantina s. hololissa s. ponderosa, 

 originally confined to the North Island of Aldabra, where this 



1 Presidential Address. Proc. Linn. Soc. 1898. See also Giinther, Gigantic 

 Land- Tortoises, Brit. Mus. London, 1877 ; Gadow, Trans. Zool. Soc. xiii. 1894, 

 p. 313 ; Rothschild, Novit. Zool., several notes. 



