242 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES [Proc. 4th Ser. 



Galapagos Archipelago by the California Academy of Sciences. 

 This expedition set sail from San Francisco on the twenty- 

 eighth of June, 1905, in the schooner "Academy," which had 

 been purchased and rechristened for the purpose. The scien- 

 tific staff of the expedition consisted of eight young men. Mr. 

 R. H. Beck, who has had more experience in these islands 

 than any other collector — this being his fourth expedition to 

 them — was in charge. Mr. Alban Stewart went as botanist; 

 Mr. W. H. Ochsner, as geologist; Mr. F. X. Williams, as 

 entomologist; while Mr. E. W. Gifford and Mr. J. S. Hunter 

 were to study and collect the birds, and my assistant, Mr. J. R. 

 Slevin, with the aid of Mr. E. S. King, was to care for the 

 reptiles. 



Having made brief stops at various islands near the coast of 

 Lower California, as well as at San Benedicto, Socorro, Clip- 

 perton, and Cocos islands, the party reached the Galapagos 

 Archipelago and landed upon Hood Island, September 24, 

 1905. During the months which followed, the most arduous 

 collecting was vigorously carried on in all the islands of the 

 group, many of the larger being visited several times, and 

 on September 25, 1906, after a full year of work, the "Acad- 

 emy" left Culpepper Island and set sail for San Francisco, 

 where she arrived in safety Thanksgiving day, November 29, 

 1906. 



This exploration met with far greater success than I had 

 anticipated. Tortoises, or their remains, were found for the 

 first time on Barrington, Jervis, and Narborough islands, and 

 on Cowley Mountain, Albemarle Island. They were also found 

 still living in all the localities from which they had ever been 

 recorded except Charles Island, where they appear, as on Bar- 

 rington, to be really extinct. Only on Duncan Island and the 

 southern portion of Albemarle were they encountered in con- 

 siderable numbers, and in the latter region they are being 

 rapidly reduced by the raids of the natives who kill them for 

 meat and oil. 



It was Captain Porter who first called attention to the fact 

 that each of the tortoise-bearing islands of the archipelago 

 had its own peculiar race or species. With the exception of 

 Albemarle, no island has more than one kind of tortoise. Now 

 there is evidence that Albemarle, the largest island of the 



