522 LETTER FROM COMMANDER W. E. COOKSON, R.N. [June 20, 



landed at the spot in the hope of procuring the shell ; but it was so 

 decayed from exposure that I did not bring it away. The remain- 

 ing portion of the skull could not be found. 



" The settlers on Charles Island informed me that the tortoises 

 are quite extinct on this island, and that only a very few are 

 thought to remain on Chatham Island, these few (if any) being 

 at the S.E. end of the island, whicli is the furthest point from the 

 settlement, and a part which is covered with very dense bush. 

 These two islands are the only ones of the group which are per- 

 manently inhabited. Hood, James, and Indefatigable Islands still 

 contain a few tortoises in their most inaccessible parts ; but they are 

 so scarce that they are not now hunted on these islands : on parts 

 of Albemarle Island it was said that they were still plentiful, espe- 

 cially at the S.E. end, where landing is generally impossible, and that 

 some were to be found on the small island of Abingdon. To my 

 inquiries as to whether the tortoises were different on the different 

 islands, I received conflicting answers : some said they were all 

 alike, others that there was a- difference in shape, &c, &c. ; and 

 amongst other things I was told that the tortoises on Abingdon 

 Island had white heads and feet, whereas those on the other islands 

 had these parts black. They were said also to differ in shape from 

 those of most of the other islands, but that the Hood-Island tortoise 

 resembled the Abingdon, the same comparison to the Spanish 

 saddle being used by them which Mr. Darwin quotes (Nat. Voy., 

 new ed. p. 394). As Hood and Abingdon Islands are the most 

 distant from one another of any in the group, it would have been 

 very interesting to ascertain if their tortoises really resembled one 

 another, whilst they differed from those of the other islands ; but 

 my whole stay in the archipelago was limited to a fortnight, and 

 during that time I had to visit the settlements and collect informa- 

 tion on various subjects for a general report on the islands ; and as 

 the inhabitants told me that my whole fortnight might be spent in a 

 fruitless search in either Hood, James, or Indefatigable Islands, I 

 was obliged to give up the idea of obtaining specimens from mure 

 than two islands, and decided upon obtaining some, if possible, from 

 Albemarle and Abingdon Islands. 



" At Charles Island I was fortunate enough to secure the services 

 of an Englishman who has been engaged in making tortoise-oil for 

 the last fifteen years ; without his guidance we should, I think, have 

 failed in our search on Abingdon Island. 



" Our searching party on Abingdon Island consisted of 20 men, 

 besides several of the officers. After some search we found four 

 tortoises; one of these, owing to want of sufficient hands to carry 

 them all, was killed on shore (shell "C "). The other three we 

 brought on board the ship ; it cost us, however, two days of very 

 hard work : they had to be carried, slung from poles, a distance of 

 six miles through a bush so thick that a trail had to be cut for the 

 whole distance ; besides which the whole surface of the island is 

 covered with irregular blocks of lava, making the walking with a 

 heavy load exceedingly tedious and laborious. To get the tortoises 



