We can mention only a few of the large tortoises which have become famous, not to say historical. A fascinating résumé of the whole complicated question has been given by Dr. Günther.[[136]]
Testudo gigantea s. elephantina s. hololissa s. ponderosa, originally confined to the North Island of Aldabra, where this kind has been completely exterminated, is now still to be found in the Seychelles in considerable numbers, introduced there by planters, and kept in a state of semi-domestication. A very large specimen was received by the Hon. Walter Rothschild, at Tring, in 1893. In 1897 its shell measured 40¼ inches in length, 52¼ over the curve, and 50 inches across the curve transversely; it weighed 358 lbs. The measurements taken in previous years are unfortunately not free from mistakes. "Whenever the temperature was over 60° F. this tortoise had a free run of 350 acres of grass park, and when the temperature showed permanently below 58°, it was kept in an orchid house from September to June. When at liberty in the park it lived entirely on grass, but in the hothouse it fed on carrots, cabbage, lettuce, and several other vegetables"; it was also very fond of rotten fruit. To this species belongs the large tortoise which has been living at St. Helena for more than the last hundred years.
T. daudini is the species of the South Island of Aldabra. Voeltzkow, in 1895, succeeded in carrying off seven specimens. He gives the following description:–The island is an atoll, cut through in three places, with a greatest length of about twenty miles. The chief hindrance in the search for the tortoises is the impenetrability of the island. The soil consists entirely of sharp water-worn corals, with their points uppermost, while the whole is covered with such thick masses of low scrub, that a way has to be cut with an axe, so that an extended search over a large area is out of the question. To land on the outside is dangerous, on account of the heavy surf; while landing from the inside of the atoll is much hindered by the dense thickets of mangrove trees. As drinking water, and that very bad, is only found in one place, rainwater has to be collected from the natural hollows, and carried along in tanks. Thousands of mosquitoes prevent one remaining over night in those places which the tortoises frequent. Then at last, when one has discovered, by a stroke of luck, one of these creatures, in the thick scrub, where they hide during the heat of the day, the real hard work begins, namely, the conveyance of the beast. Six reached Europe alive, two of them were sent to Frankfort, and the four others to Hamburg. Mr. Rothschild received a male of T. daudini, which, until its recent death, was the largest living tortoise known. The length of its shell was 55 inches, or 67½ inches over the curve; total weight 560 lbs. This specimen had a chequered career. Although its original home must have been the Aldabra atoll, it had been known for many years on Egmont Island, one of the Chagos Islands. According to tradition, it had been there some 150 years, but the first settlement on that island was formed from Mauritius only at the beginning of this century. The owner of the tortoise, M. Antelme, took it to Mauritius, whence it came to England. On the Egmont Island it used to bury itself for six months in the ground without eating anything.
Fig. 83.–Testudo daudini (above) and T. abingdoni (below). × 1⁄20.
T. sumeirei.–This kind is supposed to have been the species peculiar to the Seychelles. In 1766 five large tortoises were brought from the Seychelles to Mauritius by Chevalier Marion de Tresne. Of these only three were alive in 1898, two in Mauritius and one in London; the latter specimen soon died in the Zoological Gardens. One of the two survivors, the last of their race, is famous. It was kept at Port Louis, and when Mauritius became a British possession in 1810, the tortoise was especially mentioned and taken over. It still lives there in the grounds of the barracks of the garrison. According to the proverbial oldest inhabitants it had in 1810 already reached its present size, namely, a shell-length of about 40 inches with a greatest circumference of 259 cm. = 8 feet 6 inches. Total weight 160 kilo = about 358 lbs. When walking it stands 63.5 cm. = 25.4 inches high, with the plastron about 15 cm. or 6 inches above the ground, and it can then carry with ease two full-grown men on its back. This old male is now nearly blind, but is otherwise of regular habits and in good health. Although it has been known for nearly 150 years it had to wait for its scientific name until the year 1892.
Another famous individual is the Colombo tortoise. It is supposed to have come to Colombo from the Seychelles in 1798. It died in 1897. To judge from photographs, this specimen, a male, may possibly belong to T. sumeirei, in spite of the very flat shell, which is 53½ inches in length.
Leaving aside the remains of sub-fossil tortoises, e.g. the thin-shelled T. vosmaeri of Rodriguez, and several kinds which have been dug out in the Mare-aux-songes of Mauritius, one of which had a markedly forked and prolonged anterior plastral lobe, rather resembling that of the Pliocene Sivalik T. atlas, we now turn to the tortoises of the Galapagos Islands. They existed in enormous numbers towards the end of the seventeenth century, when Dampier visited those islands. Hundreds were exported and scattered early in the nineteenth century. When the islands became a penal settlement of Ecuador, the introduction of convicts and pigs proved detrimental to them, but Darwin found them still present in 1835 on most of the islands. His classical account of these old giants is to be found in the Voyage of the Beagle. They lived on the succulent cactus plants, leaves of trees, berries, and a kind of Usnea, a lichen pendant from the trees. They collected regularly at certain pools and springs, leading to which were regular well-trodden paths, formed by the coming and going of the tortoises. He calculated that they could walk a distance of about four miles in one day. During the time of propagation the males emit a hoarse bark, which can be heard a hundred yards off. The round eggs measure about 5 cm. or 2 inches in diameter, and are laid in the month of October, about one dozen making a set.
Nearly every island had apparently its own kind. They are all remarkable for their small head and the length of their neck, which is decidedly longer and more slender than that of the Eastern tortoises. The most peculiar looking are or were T. ephippium and T. abingdoni, the shell of which is extremely thin, with large lacunae in the osseous plates. The profile of the shell is somewhat saddle-shaped, with the horny shields partly concave and turned upwards at the sides. The general colour of these and the other Galapagos tortoises is black. T. ephippium still survives on Duncan Island. Of T. elephantopus s. vicina Baur collected twenty-one specimens in 1893 on Albemarle Island. Some of them are still comparatively young, only 16 inches long. A large one was killed, and, being hard up for water, Baur and his companions drank the five cups full of fluid contained in the pericardial sac; they found it most refreshing, and tasting somewhat like the white of an egg. One monster is said to have measured 56 inches over the curve, with a skull 7.12 inches in length. Mr. Rothschild received one of this kind alive–a much-travelled specimen. It came to England from Sydney, whether it had been brought in 1880 from Rotuma Island, north of the Fiji group. There it had probably been left with others by Captain Porter, who, on his voyage from the Galapagos in 1813, distributed several young tortoises from his stock among the chiefs, and permitted a great many to escape into the bushes and among the grass. The shell of this specimen measured 49½ inches in length, 56 over the curve.
Fam. 6. Chelonidae (Turtles).–The limbs are paddle-shaped, and the shell is covered with horny shields. Only two recent genera, with three species, widely distributed in the seas.