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Show 522 LETTER FROM COMMANDER W. E. COOKSON, R.N. [June 20, landed at the spot in the hope of procuring the shell; but it was so decayed from exposure that I did not bring it away. The remaining portion of the skull could not be found. " The settlers on Charles Island informed me that the tortoises are quite extinct on this island, and that only a very few are thought to remain on Chatham Island, these few (if any) being at the S.E. end of the island, which is the furthest point from the settlement, and a part which is covered with very dense bush. These two islands are the only ones of the group which are permanently inhabited. Hood, James, and Indefatigable Islands still contain a few tortoises in their most inaccessible parts ; but they are so scarce that they are not now hunted on these islands: on parts of Albemarle Island it was said that they were still plentiful, especially at the S.E. end, where landing is generally impossible, and that some were to be found on the small island of Abingdon. To my inquiries as to whether the tortoises were different on the different islands, I received conflicting answers: some said they were all alike, others that there was a difference in shape, & c , &c.; and amongst other things I was told that the tortoises on Abingdon Island had white heads and feet, whereas those on the other islands had these parts black. They were said also to differ in shape from those of most of the other islands, but that the Hood-Island tortoise resemoled the Abingdon, the same comparison to the Spanish saddle being used by them which Mr. Darwin quotes (Nat. Voy., new ed. p. 394). As Hood and Abingdon Islands are the most distant from one another of any in the group, it would have been very interesting to ascertain if their tortoises really resembled one another, whilst they differed from those of the other islands; but my whole stay in the archipelago was limited to a fortnight, and during that time I had to visit tbe settlements and collect information on various subjects for a general report on the islands ; and as the inhabitants told me that m y whole fortnight might be spent in a fruitless search in either Hood, James, or Indefatigable Islands, I was obliged to give up the idea of obtaining specimens from mure than two islands, and decided upon obtaining some, if possible, from Albemarle and Abingdon Islands. " At Charles Island I was fortunate enough to secure the services of an Englishman who has been engaged in making tortoise-oil for the last fifteen years ; without his guidance we should, I think, have failed in our search on Abingdon Island. " Our searching party on Abingdon Island consisted of 20 men, besides several of the officers. After some search we found four tortoises; one of these, owing to want of sufficient hands to carry them all, was killed on shore (shell " C " ) . The other three we brought on board the ship ; it cost us, however, two days of very hard work: they had to be carried, slung from poles, a distance of six miles through a bush so thick that a trail had to be cut for the whole distance ; besides which the whole surface of the island is covered with irregular blocks of lava, making the walking with a heavy load exceedingly tedious and laborious. To get the tortoises |