DR. A. GUNTHER ON GIGANTIC LAND-TORTOISES. 
257 
after his cruise round the Galapagos, to the Marquesas Islands, making a prolonged 
stay at Madison Island, where he “ distributed from his stock several young Tortoises 
among the chiefs, and permitted a great many to escape into the bushes and among the 
grass ” (vol. ii. p. 109). 
Captain James Colnett’s visit to the Galapagos archipelago deserves to be men- 
tioned only because he adds Abingdon Island to the list of those in which Tortoises 
occur (‘Voyage to the South Atlantic,’ Lond. 1798, 4to, p. 152). Also Capt. Basil 
Hall landed on this island in 1822, where he found plenty of large Tortoises, of which 
he laid in a stock which lasted the ship’s company for many weeks (‘ Extracts from a 
Journal,’ Edinb. 1824, 8vo, 2nd edit. vol. ii. p. 140). 
Twenty-two years had passed since Porter’s cruise, when Darwin visited the Gala- 
pagos in the ‘Beagle’ in the year 1835. A change, by which the existence of these 
animals was much more threatened than by the casual visits of buccaneers and whalers, 
had taken place. The Kepublic of the Equator had taken possession of the archipelago, 
and a colony of between two and three hundred people banished by the Government 
had been established on Charles Island, who reduced the numbers of Tortoises in this 
island so much that they sent parties to other islands (for instance, James) to catch 
Tortoises and salt their meat (‘ Journal,’ pp. 375, 376). Pigs had multiplied, and were 
roaming about in the woods in a feral state. Darwin adds many interesting observa- 
tions on the habits of these Tortoises; but as his ‘Journal’ is in everybody’s hands, I 
quote from his account such parts only as have a special bearing on questions with which 
we shall have to deal in this treatise. He confirms Porter’s observation as regards 
their deafness, also that “ the old males are the largest, the females rarely growing to 
so great a size. The male can readily be distinguished from the female by the greater 
length of its tail” (p. 382). An egg which he measured was 7f inches in circumfer- 
ence, a measure nearly identical with that found by Porter. “ The old ones seem gene- 
rally to die from accidents, as from falling down precipices. At least, several of the 
inhabitants told me they had never found one dead without some evident cause” 
(p. 384). “The Vice-Governor, Mr. Lawson, declared that the Tortoises differed from 
the different islands, and that he could with certainty tell from which island any one was 
brought. . . . M. Bibron, moreover, informs me that he has seen what he considers two 
distinct species of Tortoise from the Galapagos, but he does not know from which 
islands. The specimens that I brought from three islands were young ones, and, pro- 
bably owing to this cause, neither Mr. Gray nor myself could find in them any specific 
differences ” (p. 394). 
After an interval of not quite eleven years, H.M.S. ‘ Herald ’ followed the ‘ Beagle ’ 
on a voyage of discovery and survey. The naturalist of that expedition, which reached 
the Galapagos in the year 1846, found that the progress of civilization had been great 
(‘Narrative of H.M.S. Herald,’ by B. Seemann, Lond. 1853, 8vo), or, in other words, 
that the displacement of the indigenous fauna by man and his companions had pro- 
ceeded apace. On Charles Island “ the cattle had increased wonderfully, and were esti- 
