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



General remarks. — This is one of the most "saddle-backed" 

 of the Galapagoan tortoises. It is most like T. hecki of north- 

 ern Albemarle and T. ephippium of Duncan. The former, 

 however, is a larger species, while the Duncan race rarely if 

 ever grows as large as the Abingdon one. The shells of the 

 Abingdon tortoises are quite thin, and there is much yellow 

 about the head in males. 



Field Notes* — 



September 18, 1906. — Sailed this morning for Abingdon, 

 where we anchored at 12:30 on the south side of the island, 

 which appears to be the highest. 



September 19, 1906. — Went up the mountain after tortoises. 

 We commenced to get into good tortoise country at about 

 seven or eight hundred feet elevation, the beginning of the 

 green zone. There is not much earth, the ground being 

 nearly all lava, but there is plenty of water and cactus. The 

 top of the mountain is covered with fog most of the time, 

 and everything is very wet. We saw fresh signs of tortoises 

 soon after getting into the green zone, and soon found a trail. 

 This we followed, and came upon a tortoise on the top of a 

 large rock which contained a few small water holes. It is 

 capital country for tortoises; we did not, however, look far- 

 ther, but skinned and carried out our first find. Ochsner went 

 up the mountain a little higher, and came upon another large 

 male. There are trails all around the mountain side. Beck 

 found a male on the southern slope of the mountain, lower 

 down. He also found the fresh trail of another tortoise, but 

 failed to find the tortoise. We expect to go in tomorrow and 

 get the tortoise Oschner found. The one we got out today 

 was a very fat male. Its stomach contained cactus. 



September 20, 1906. — Spent the day getting out the tor- 

 toise found by Ochsner. Saw several trails but no new tor- 

 toises. Today Beck found the one the trail of which he saw 

 yesterday, but it is too far in to get out. Expect tomorrow 

 to get out the one he found yesterday. The stomach of the 

 one skinned today contained cactus and grass. 



September 21, 1906. — Went in after the tortoise which 

 Beck found September 19. It was about a mile or two above 

 the green zone on the southern slope of the mountain. Up 

 there it is continually raining or foggy throughout the morn- 



*A11 the field notes, unless otherwise stated, are by Mr. Joseph R. Slevin. 



