LAND- TOR TOISES. 
55 
Giant Tortoises. 
she could stretch her legs, and suddenly withdrawing them, allowing herself to 
drop heavily on the earth, by which means it was speedily beaten flat; and so 
smooth and natural did it appear that, had I not detected her in the performance 
of her task, I should certainly never have noticed the spot where she had 
deposited her eggs. She did not immediately leave the place after finishing her 
work, but remained inactive, as if recovering from her fatigues.” In disposition 
these tortoises are decidedly pugnacious, this being especially the case with the 
males. These combats seemed to be chiefly trials of strength, “ one male confronting 
the other, with the hind and fore-legs drawn into the shell, and the liind-feet 
planted firmly on the ground, and in this manner striving against each other until 
one or both became fatigued. This was done chiefly when they wanted to pass 
each other in any narrow space; and sometimes if the one could succeed in placing 
his shell a little beneath the other, he tilted him over on his back, from which he 
had great difficulty in recovering himself; and I have frequently found them 
sprawling thus, making desperate efforts with head and feet to throw themselves 
back to their natural position, which they were unable to effect unless the ground 
chanced to be very uneven, so as to assist them.” 
During the Pliocene, or later division of the Tertiary period, 
gigantic land-tortoises were, as attested by their petrified remains, 
widely distributed over the continents of the world; species having been obtained 
from India, France, and North and South America. The largest of these was the 
well-known atlas tortoise ( T. atlas ) from the Siwalik Hills of Northern India, in 
which the length of the shell was about 6 feet; the species itself being apparently 
allied to the existing Burmese brown tortoise already referred to. Probably more 
or less abundant during the epoch in question, with the advent of the ensuing 
Pleistocene epoch giant tortoises seem to have disappeared entirely from the 
continental areas, to survive on certain oceanic islands where they were free from 
the competition of large animals of higher organisation. Some of these insular 
species, like those of Madagascar and Malta, did not apparently survive the 
Pleistocene epoch; while in other regions they flourished and multiplied till the 
fell presence of man led to their partial or total extermination. At the present 
day the few survivors of these monstrous reptiles are being rapidly reduced in 
numbers, and unless special means be speedily taken for their preservation, they 
will ere long entirely cease to exist. During the historic period the islands where 
giant tortoises are known to have existed constitute three distinct groups. Two 
of these are situated in the Indian Ocean, and comprise Aldabra, to the north-west 
of Madagascar, and the Mascarene Group—including Reunion, Mauritius, and 
Rodriguez—lying to the east of the same; while the third or Galapagos Group, 
taking its name from the Spanish word for tortoise, is situated in the far distant 
South Pacific, off the western coast of South America. During the sixteenth and 
seventeenth centuries, the tortoises are stated to have existed in enormous numbers 
in all the above-named islands; but as they afforded a most valuable supply of 
food, and could be kept alive on board ship, their numbers were rapidly reduced in 
those of the Indian Ocean, and Aldabra is now the only island in that area where 
they still exist in a wild state. Many of these tortoises were, however, exported 
to the Seychelles, and it is believed, as we shall notice below, that one carried 
