THE GALAPAGOS TORTOISES. 265 
Gebirge von Siid-Albemarle, ohne das man wiiszte wie sie dorthin gekommen 
sind” (Hin Besuch der Gal4pagos=Inseln, p. 31). Floreana was the name given 
by Villamiel to Santa Maria (Charles). Young tortoises of which one might 
carry a number in his pocket presented no such difficulties as cattle in way of 
distribution. Cattle like most tortoises are tolerably expert at swimming. 
Sailors are fond of pets and a young tortoise or even a giant is an unfailing 
attraction to them. Undoubtedly they have helped to bring about the puzzling 
mixtures now gathered in various museums. The islands were frequently 
visited before the year 1800, but no attempt was made at colonization. Watkins, 
a sailor, was said to have been marooned for nearly a year, 1808, on Santa Maria. 
Villamiel’s colony of 1832, on the same island, numbered several hundred people 
in 1835 and at this time they had continued the destruction of the multitudes 
of tortoises so effectively that the settlers were drawing supplies from other 
islands. The Bracin, 1835, got specimens from three of the islands, Santa 
Maria (Charles), San Cristobal (Chatham) San Salvador (James), mostly 
young, apparently of a single species or so very young experts were unable to 
distinguish the species. This colony on Santa Maria was a penal colony. Wolf, 
1879, says it soon melted away until finally “‘der Rest der zuletzt tibriggeblie- 
benden Riéuberbande rieb sich zum Theil selbst auf, zum Theil entwich er auf 
den anlegenden Schiffen der Wallfischfinger’”’ (Ein Besuch, p. 4), and for a 
long time no traces of the colony had existed. Darwin, 1839, p. 457 says of 
Charles (Santa Maria), ‘‘the main article of animal food is derived from the 
tortoise. Their numbers in this island have of course been greatly reduced, 
but the people yet reckon on two days’ hunting supplying food for the rest of 
the week.”’ In the seventies Baldisan established a small colony on Santa 
Maria. He was killed by the colonists about eight years later; after his death 
this island was deserted. In 1865 Cobos landed a party on San Cristobal 
(Chatham) to gather Orchilla, a lichen used as a dyestuff; these remained till 
1869, when they left the island. Ten years later Cobos returned to San Cristobal 
with more than a hundred men and founded a colony which appeared prosperous 
in 1891, and which may yet be in existence. The work of the colony was not 
limited to the island upon which it settled; it drew supplies from the other is- 
lands. The meat hunters, the oil collectors, and the orchilla pickers passed 
from island to island so frequently that it is not to be expected that any of the 
islands has its own unmixed race of tortoises, unaffected by mixtures from others. 
The older specimens, those secured before the exploitation of the islands, are 
perhaps the least likely to be suspected of being hybridized or mongrelized by 
