INTRODUCTION. NEARLY all the voyagers of the 16th and 17th centuries who have left accounts of their adventures and discoveries in the Indian and Pacific oceans mention the occurrence, in certain isolated islands or groups of islands, of gigantic Land-Tortoises in countless numbers. The islands on which they met with these animals, although all between the equator and southern tropic, form two most distant zoological stations, widely different in their physical characteristics. One of those stations was the Galapagos Islands; the other comprised Aldabra (on the north-west of Madagascar), and Réunion, Mauritius, and Rodriguez (on the east of that island). But they had this in common, that at the time of their discovery they were uninhabited by man, or even by any larger terrestrial mammal. Not one of these voyagers ever mentions having met with those Tortoises in any other island of the tropics, or in any portion of the Indian continent; and it is not likely that one or the other would not have mentioned the fact if he had seen them in some novel locality. In fact the hardy sailors of that period took the greatest interest in these animals, which were to them a most important article of food. At a time when a voyage now performed in a few weeks took as many months, when every vessel, for defence’ sake and from other causes, carried as many people as it was possible to pack into her, when provisions were rudely cured and but few in kind, those tortoises which could be captured in any number with the greatest ease within a few days proved to be a most welcome addition to the stock. ‘The animals could be carried in the hold of aship or in any other part, without food, for months, and were slaughtered as occasion required, each tortoise yielding, according to size, from 80 to 500 pounds of excellent and wholesome meat. ‘Thus we are informed that ships leaving the Mauritius or the Galapagos used to take upwards of 400 of these animals on board. When we consider that these helpless creatures lived for ages in perfect security from all enemies, and that nature had endowed them with a most extraordinary degree of longevity *, so that the individuals of many generations lived simultaneously in their *Onthispointthetestimonyisunanimousandnottobedoubted;infactallTortoisesarelong-lived.The large male Aldabra Tortoise imported for the Trustees of the British Museum from the Seychelles was known to havebeenkeptinthelateowner’sfamilyinCerfIslandforabout80years,andissaidtohavebeenalready oflargesizeattheperiodwhenitwasbroughttotheSeychelles.Itwasstillgrowingatthetimeofitsdeath in the Zoological Garden of Regent’s Park in the present year.
Of another example which is living at Colombo B
2 INTRODUCTION. island home, we can well account for the multitudes found by the first visitors to those islands. Leouat (1691) says that ‘there are such plenty of Land-Turtles in this isle (Rodriguez) that sometimes you see two or three thousand of them in a flock, so that you may go above a hundred paces on their backs.” Down to 1740 they continued to be numerous in Mauritius; for Grant (Hist. Maurit. p. 194) writes in that year, “ We possess a great abundance of fowl, as well as both Land- and Sea-Turtle, which are not only a great resource for the supply of our ordinary wants, but serve to barter with the crews of ships who put in here for refreshment in their voyage to India.” Yet they appear to have been much more scattered in the larger island than in Rodriguez; and, according to Admiral Kempinrext, who visited the latter island in 1761 (see Grant’s Maurit. p- 100), small vessels were constantly employed in transporting these animals by thousands to Mauritius for the service of the hospital. Soon, however, their numbers appear to have been rapidly diminished ; the old ones were captured by man, the young ones devoured by pigs. Numbers must have succumbed in consequence of the numerous conflagrations by which the rank vegetation of the plains was destroyed to make room for the plantations of the settler. Early in the present century the work of extermination appears to have been accomplished, and there is at present not a single living example either in the Mauritius or in Rodriguez. Our knowledge of the indigenous fauna of the island of Réunion is still extremely meagre: but although no remains whatever of a large Tortoise from that island are known to exist in any collection, there cannot be any doubt that a gigantic Land-Tortoise once inhabited Réunion, as may be seen from the following historical evidence. In the continuation of P. G. Veruurr’s ‘ Voyage into the East Indies’ (De Bry, Ind. Orient. Supplementum none Partis. Francof. 1633. fol.) it is stated on p. 23:— [Anno 1611] “Die 27 [Decembr. mens. ] pervenerunt ad Masquerinen*, insulam nempe, 80 miliaribus a Mauritii insula distantem, que 16 miliaria circuitu et ambitu suo continet, nec ullis hominibus habitatur, licet ad victum necessarium Testudines piscesque et volucres multiplices abunde suppeditet.” In a letter of R. P. Brown, published in ‘ Lettres édifiantes et curieuses écrites des Missions étrangéres, par quelques Missionaires de la Compagnie de Jésus,’ xxx. Recueil, Paris, 1773, 12mo, p. 324, we read that about 60 years ago a party of Frenchmen landed from Madagascar on Réunion, which they found uninhabited, and that for the first two we have equally reliable evidence, as appears from a paragraph in the ‘Ceylon Observer,’ April 25th, 1870.
‘Welearnongoodauthoritythatthe‘Tortoise’exhibitedbyMr.Symons,Uplands,theonewhichissowell knownattheMutwalendofthetown,livedintheUplandscompoundforbetween150and200years.Itwas sent from Java as a present to one of the Dutch governors here,” &c.
Averyyoungexample,7incheslong,senttomefromAldabrabyDr.W.M‘Gregor,wasthreeyearsold. * The Portuguese voyager Mascaregnas gave his own name to the island of Bourbon, which formerly had been called by his countrymen Cerne.
INTRODUCTION. 3 years they lived almost exclusively on fish and Land- and Marine Tortoises. And again, on p. 338, the writer says:—“ Lisle abondoit autrefois en tortues de terre, mais les matelots en ont tant détruit, qu’on n’en trouve plus guére que sur la céte occidentale, encore y sont-elles trés-rares. On attribue 4 ces animaux plusieurs propriétés, enty’ autres celle de purifier la masse du sang; et de guérir des maladies. . . . On en tire encore une huile fort douce, qui a presque le méme gout que Vhuile de Provence” (which statements are repeated in Rees’s ‘ Cyclopedia,’ p. 207). Independent but similar evidence is given by Francois CaucHE in “ Relation du Voyage a Madagascar” (1638), published in ‘ Relations véritables et curieuses,’ Paris, 1651, 4to, p. 7. “De la [de Visle de Diego Rois *] nous tirasmes en lisle de Mascarhene, qui en est éloignée de 30. lieués, scituée environ deux degrez dela le Tropique du Capricorne. Elle est inhabitée [uninhabited] comme la précédente, quoy que les eaux y soient bonnes, abondante en gibier, poissons et fruit. On y voit grand nombre d’oiseaux, et tortues de terre, et les riviéres y sont fort pisqueuses.”’ _ Finally I may refer to another testimony in the xvi. Recueil of the ‘ Lettres édifiantes,’ &c. quoted above (Paris, 1724, 12mo), in a “ Lettre du Pere Jacques,” p. 9. “ Le meilleur de tous les animaux, qu’on y [in Réunion] trouve, soit pour le gotit, soit pour la santé, cest la Tortue de terre... . La Tortue est de la méme figure que celle, qu’on voit en France; mais elle est bien différente pour sa grandeur. On assure quelle vit un temps prodigieux, qu'il lui faut plusieurs siécles pour parvenir a la grosseur naturelle, et qu’elle peut passer plus de six mois sans manger. On en a gardé dans Visle de petites qui au bout de 20 ans n’avaient grossi que de quelques pouces,” &c. As mentioned above, nothing else is known of this Tortoise: no specimen is known to have been preserved; no remains have been found hitherto. It seems to have been exterminated even before the period of extinction of the Mauritius and Rodriguez species. The Seychelles do not appear to have been inhabited by these animals, certainly not within historical times, all the individuals found there having been imported from Aldabra, and kept in a semi-domesticated condition. The latter group of islands is the only spot in the Indian Ocean where this Chelonian type still lingers in a wild state, in small and gradually diminishing numbers, as we shall subsequently see in the description of the Tortoises of that locality.
The original condition and the fate of the Tortoises of the Galapagos archipelago were precisely the same as in the islands of the Indian Ocean. According to the unanimous testimony of geographers, the first discoverers of those islands, the Spaniards, found them so thickly peopled with Tortoises, that they applied the Spanish word for Tortoise to their discovery. In Dampimr’s time (1680) it was the common practice of vessels to visit those islands for a supply of water and tortoises. In his ‘ New Voyage round the World’ (Lond. 1697, 8vo), p. 101, he says:—‘ The Land-Turtle are here so numerous that five or six hundred men might subsist on them alone for several months, * This does not appear to me to have been Rodriguez, as believed by the editor of the voyage.
B2
4 INTRODUCTION.
without any other sort of provision. They are extraordinary large and fat, and so sweet that no pullet eats more pleasantly. One of the largest of these creatures will weigh 150 or 200 weight [pounds], and some of them are 2 foot or 2 foot 6 inches over the callapee or belly [across the sternum]. . . . They have very long small necks and little heads.” The condition of this group of islands, and of the animals inhabiting them, appears to have been unaltered when they were visited by Amasa DeLanoand Davip PortER— the former a captain in the merchant service, the latter in the navy of the United States.
Dexano (‘ Narrative of Voyages and Travels,’ Boston, 1817, 8vo) made several visits to the Galapagos, the first in 1800 (p. 369). He found plenty of Tortoises in Hood’s, Charles, James, and Albemarle Islands. He gives a good description of them, noticing particularly the long, serpent-like neck (p. 376):—“ I have seen them with necks between two and three feet long. ... ‘They would raise their heads as high as they could, their necks being nearly vertical, and advance with their mouths wide open. . . . They are perfectly harmless... . I have known them live several months without food; but they allways in that case grow lighter, and their fat diminishes. ... I carried at one time from James Island 300 very good terrapins to the island of Massa Fuero; and there landed more than half of them, after having them more than 60 days on board my ship. Half of the number landed died as soon as they took food... . those that survived the shock which was occasioned by this sudden transition from total abstinence to that of abundance soon became tranquil, and appeared to be as healthy and as contented with the climate as when they were at their native place; and they would probably have lived as long, had they not been killed for food. ... Ihave carried them to Canton at two different times.”
PorTER informs us of many interesting particulars in his ‘ Journal of a Cruise made to the Pacific Ocean’ (New York, 1822, 8vo, in 2 vols.). He found the Tortoises (in 1813) in greater or less abundance in all the larger islands of the group which he visited, viz. Hood’s, Marlborough, James, Charles, and Indefatigable (Porter’s) Islands. On Chatham Island, where he made a short stay, a few of their shells and bones were seen, but they appeared to have been long dead (vol. i. p. 231); and on Albemarle Island, the largest of the group, none were observed by him, evidently because he landed here only for a few hours on the south-western point. Abingdon, Binloe, Downe, and Barrington Islands were not visited by him. Some of the Tortoises captured weighed from 300 to 400 pounds (p. 127). ‘Their steps are slow, regular, and heavy; they carry their body about a foot from the ground. ... ‘Their neck is from 18 inches to 2 feet in length, and very slender; their head is proportioned to it, and strongly resembles that of a serpent. .. . Noanimal can possibly afford a more wholesome, luscious, and delicate food than they do... . What seems the most extraordinary in this animal is the length of time that it can exist without food; for I have been well assured that they have been piled away among the casks in the hold of a ship, where they have been
INTRODUCTION. 5 kept eighteen months, and when killed at the expiration of that time were found to have suffered no diminution in fatness or excellence. ‘They carry with them a constant supply of water in a bag at the root of the neck, which contains about two gallons; and on tasting that found in those we killed on board, it proved perfectly fresh and sweet. ... In the day-time they appear remarkably quick-sighted and timid, drawing their head into their shell on the slightest motion of any object; but they are entirely destitute of hearing, as the loudest noise, even the firing of a gun, does not seem to alarm them in the slightest degree; and at night, or in the dark, they appear perfectly blind” (p. 150). Near a bay on the north-east part of James Island, Porter took on board as many as would weigh about 14 tons, the individuals averaging about 60 pounds —that is, about 500 individuals (p. 214); and he states that “ among the whole only three were male, which may be easily known by their great size, and from the length of their tails, which are much longer than those of the females. As the females were found in low sandy bottoms, and all without exception were full of eggs, of which generally from ten to fourteen were hard, it is presumable that they came down from the mountains for the express purpose of laying. This opinion seems strengthened by the circumstance of there being no male Tortoises among them, the few we found having been taken a considerable distance up the mountains. ... ‘The temperature of the air of the Gallipagos Islands varies from 72° to 75°; that of the blood of the Tortoise is always 62°. ... The eggs are perfectly round, white, and of 25 inches diameter” (pp. 215, 216).
Very significant are Porter’s remarks as regards the differences of the ‘Tortoises from different islands. On Indefatigable Island “ they were generally of an enormous size, one of which measured 5% feet long, 45 feet wide, and 3 feet thick; and others were found by some of the seamen of a larger size” (p. 164). ‘“* The shells of those of James Island are sometimes remarkably thin and easily broken, but more particularly so as they become advanced in age. . . . ‘Those of James Island appear to be a species entirely distinct from those of Hood’s and Charles Islands. The form of the shell of the latter is elongated, turning up forward in the manner of a Spanish saddle, of a brown colour, and of considerable thickness. They are very disagreeable to the sight, but far superior to those of James Island in point of fatness; and their livers are considered the greatest delicacy. ‘Those of James Island are round, plump, and black as ebony, some of them handsome to the eye; but their liver is black, hard when cooked,” &c. (pp. 214, 215). The Tortoises of Hood’s Island were small, similar to those of Charles Island (p. 233). Before we pass from Porter to his successors, we must mention that he proceeded, 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 CoLNET?’s visit to the Galapagos archipelago deserves to be mentioned
6 INTRODUCTION.
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. Bastn Hat 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. 11. p. 140).
Twenty-two years had passed since Porter’s cruise when Darwin visited the Galapagos 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 Republic 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 number 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 the woods in a feral state. Darwin adds many interesting observations 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 72 inches in circumference, a measure nearly identical with that found by Porter. ‘The old ones seem generally 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, probably owing to this cause, neither Mr. Gray nor myself could find in them any specific differences ’ (p.594).
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 1816, 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 proceeded apace. On Charles Island “the cattle had increased wonderfully, and were. estimated at 2000 head, beside wild pigs, goats, and dogs... . The wild dogs keep the goats and pigs very much down” (vol. i. p. 57); but “no turpin, or terrapin, are living on this island” (p. 59); that is, the Tortoises had been exterminated between the visits of the ‘Beagle’ and the ‘ Herald.’ On Chatham Island “ we saw, for the
INTRODUCTION. ij first time, the terrapin or galapago. . . . We bought them at the rate of six shillings apiece. They were 2 feet 2 inches in length, 1 foot 10 inches broad, standing 1 foot 2 inches off the ground.” No specimens were brought home by this expedition. In the year 1875 the writer of this work directed the attention of Rear-Admiral the Hon, A. A. Cochrane, then Commander-in-Chief on the Pacific Station, to our imperfect knowledge of the present condition of the indigenous fauna of these islands, and especially to the importance of making new and reliable observations on the Tortoises of the various localities. Rear-Admiral Cochrane instructed Commander Cookson, who was then proceeding in H.M.S. ‘ Peterel’ to the archipelago, to obtain, if possible, the desired information and specimens. In this Commander Cookson was most successful, obtaining, besides a series of examples from two of the islands, the following information, which is abstracted from his report to Rear-Admiral Cochrane :— “These Tortoises are extinct in Charles Island; and only a very few individuals are supposed to survive on Chatham Island. In Hood, James, and Indefatigable Islands the numbers are so reduced that they are no longer hunted, the few left being in the most inaccessible parts of the islands; and I was assured that a search of a fortnight might not result in finding a single individual on either of these islands. Albemarle and Abingdon are the only remaining islands in which they have ever been found. In parts of Albemarle Island they are still very aburidant, especially at the south-east end. “They are still tolerably numerous near Tagus Cove. Landing a party of twentyfour men about half a mile south-east of Tagus Cove, we found in a few hours thirty tortoises; the three largest weighed respectively 241 lb., 185 lb., and 173 Ib.; these, I was told, were as large as they are commonly found now.
“'Tagus Cove is a favourite resort of whalers for the purpose of getting tortoises. The anchorage is perfectly secure ; and the custom is for almost the entire crew to be landed until as many tortoises are secured as can be conveniently taken on board, some whalers going to sea with as many as 100.
“We found a good trail leading from the landing-place (at one of the gullies before mentioned as having pools of fresh water at its mouth) to the ground where tortoises are found, a distance of about three miles; quantities of tortoise-shells and traces of firesshowedthenumerouscamping-grounds.
“‘ Tortoises were never, I believe, very abundant on Abingdon Island: our searching party found four on this island. They were on the high ground; and it was a work of great labour getting them down to the boats. The distance was about four miles; but the ground was exceedingly rugged, and covered with thick brush, through which a trail had to be cut for the entire distance. ‘The largest found on this island weighed 201 lb., and the smallest 135 lb.
“In consequence of the extent of Albemarle Island, and the inaccessibility of many parts of it, I have no doubt these animals are still very numerous on it, and likely to be so for a long period, even at the present rate at which they are destroyed; but I have
8 INTRODUCTION.
already shown the havoc made amongst them by the oil-makers. ‘This is the cause of their being nearly extinct on James and Indefatigable Islands, where they used to be so numerous. Admiral Fitzroy found a party on James Island making oil in 1835. “In Abingdon Island, where they are not numerous, I believe they are doomed to destruction directly the orchilla-pickers are placed on the island; for a party of sixty or eighty men will soon hunt over this small island and discover every individual on it.” This first effort of resuming and supplementing Fitzroy’s and Darwin’s investigations may, it is to be hoped, encourage others to complete what Commander Cookson had to leave unaccomplished. Hood, James, and South Albemarle are deserving of particular and early attention ; and, if no living and adult specimens can be obtained, any remains, especially fragments of carapaces and skulls, from those islands, as well as from Chatham, Indefatigable, and Charles Island (where the Tortoises are said to be quite extinct) will prove of value. It may also be remembered that all the Abingdon Tortoises found were males, and that, beside the skull and cervical vertebrae, we do not know the remaining bones, the entire animal which had been preserved in spirits having been lost during thehomewardjourney.
H.M.S. ‘ CHALLENGER’ likewise paid a visit to the archipelago immediately after the ‘ Peterel,’ but without obtaining additional information. The Tortoises brought home in this vessel were obtained by, and transshipped from, the ‘ Peterel.’ The instances of occurrence of the same form of terrestrial animal at widely distant points of the globe are more numerous than we find recorded in treatises on geographical distribution of animals. They form the most interesting element in the investigation of this subject, inasmuch as they have a direct bearing upon, and will greatly assist in the solution of, the problems of the origin of species and the history of the distribution of animals. Of all those instances no one appears to me more remarkable than the reappearance of the ‘“ Indian” Gigantic Land-Tortoises in the Galapagos— not in typical singularity, but with nearly all the principal secondary modifications reproduced. How can this be explained with the aid of the doctrine of either a common or manifold origin of animal forms?
On the hypothesis that there is no immediate genetic relationship between the Tortoises of the Galapagos and Mascarenes, we may assume, without overstepping too far the limits of probability, that some terrestrial ‘Tortoises were carried by stream and current, or some other agency, from the American continent to the Galapagos, and that others from Madagascar or Africa found in a similar manner a new home in the Mascarenes. ‘These Tortoises may originally have differed from each other, like the 7. tabulata, radiata, and sulcata of our days, possibly not exceeding those species in size ; but, being placed under similar external physical conditions evidently most favourable for their further development, they assumed in course of time the same gigantic proportions and other peculiarities, the moditications in their structure which we observe