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



erate in their movements. They take very small bites, scrap- 

 ing the inside of the cactus with their horny jaws. 



July 11, 1906. — One of the old Duncan tortoises died to- 

 day. He was full of sores (abscesses?) and had something 

 the matter with his feet, as the skin nearly fell off them. The 

 lungs were very dry and full of hard lumps. The skull was 

 broken and several other bones were cracked or very weak. 

 Altogether, he was in a bad state, whatever was the matter. 



August 14, 1906. — Anchored off Duncan about ten in the 

 morning. I went ashore for lizards, while Beck went in after 

 tortoises. 



August 15, 1906. — I went down into the large crater at the 

 north end of the island. The floor of the crater is 450 feet 

 above the sea level, and is composed of red loam covered with 

 large thorn bushes and old stumps. The vegetation is thickest 

 around the edge, while the central portion is almost bare. I 

 saw old signs of tortoises, but lizards were the only reptiles 

 seen in the crater. Beck got seven tortoises down to the 

 vessel, some alive and some partly skinned. We shall have to 

 clean up the mess tomorrow. Tortoises still are abundant on 

 Duncan. We run across them while hunting for other things. 

 Former collectors could not have covered very much country, 

 if they could say they doubted whether more than two or three 

 yet remained on the island. Beck found that one female con- 

 tained large eggs with soft white shell nearly ready to lay. 

 He brought these down, and I will see if it is possible to pre- 

 serve them. We expect to sail for Vilamil early in the morn- 

 ing. 



Sept. 8, 1906. — The large male tortoise we took off Duncan 

 during our first visit died today. 



Oct. 4, 1906. — A male Duncan tortoise died on board today. 



