264 THE GALAPAGOS TORTOISES. 



cut off with the islands, from the mainland, or transported by other means it is 

 very hkely that the ancestral form is the widely distributed Jaboty, Testudo 

 tahulata (Plate 2) of South America. This is supported by the numerous features 

 possessed by the Galapagos in common with it, and by the comparatively shght 

 divergence. Distribution from island to island was easier in the early days; 

 as the lands sank the distances between the islands increased. Again there is no 

 • proof whatever of inability to swim on the part of the island tortoises. They 

 are not so different from those of the Seychelles which were proved to be good 

 swimmers as long ago as 1801, by Grandpre, Voyage dans ITnde et au Bengal. 

 If animals like those of the islands of the Indian Ocean were able to swim from 

 shore to shore leagues apart there is positively no reason for denying similar 

 ability to wander to those on the other side of the earth, equally strong and per- 

 haps more buoyant. Porter's testimony, concerning the tortoises thrown over- 

 board by the crews of vessels preparing for action, in which he says ''A few days 

 afterward at daylight in the morning we were so fortunate as to find ourselves 

 surrounded by about fifty of them which were picked up and brought on board, 

 as they had been lying in the same place where they had been thrown over, 

 incapable of any exertion in that element except that of stretching out their 

 long necks" is proof only of great buoyancy, a quiet sea and absence of land in 

 sight to direct and stimulate exertions. It certainly is no proof of inabihty to 

 swim or exert themselves in the water. What would have happened with 

 favoring winds and currents and shores in view may be readily surmised. Being 

 thrown into the sea is not the only way of going adrift for a creature, fond of 

 soaking in the water and of wallowing in the mud like swine, known to fall from 

 the cUffs and to roll down the declivities. 



Transportation by men has certainly played a large part in the history of 

 these creatures. By different vessels they have been carried to the Juan Fer- 

 nandez, Chile, Peru, the eastern and the western United States, Europe, the 

 Hawaiian, Marquesas and Tonga Islands, Australia and China; though there is 

 no evidence at hand of actual colonies being estabUshed. There is no very 

 direct assertion of transportation of tortoises from one island to others, except 

 such as were to be used for food, yet in the face of the evidence of mixed breeds 

 or hybrids in collections made in comparatively recent times it is difficult to 

 convince one that such transportations did not occur. The testimony of Wolf, 

 1879, concerning the cattle lessens the doubt of actual occurrence: — ''Das 

 Rind lebt in grossen Heerden auf den Hochplateaus und Bergen von Floreana 

 und Chatham und seit einigen Jahren traf man auch einige Stiicke auf dem 



