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Show 1876.] LETTER FROM COMMANDER W. E. COOKSON, R.N. 525 now so scarce, have long been resorted to by oil-makers. (Admiral Fitzroy found a party making oil on James Island in 1835.) " To show the havoc made amongst the tortoises by oil-makers, I may mention that at the time of our visit a party of seven were making oil on Albemarle Island; during the last twelve months they had made 3000 gallons of oil, which quantity would represent the destruction of at least an equal number of tortoises; for although a large one will yield as much as six gallons of oil, the average yield would not be more than one. "The whalers, who till within the last four or five years visited the islands to the number of 40 or 50 annually, committed great destruction amongst them; their crews living on them for several months, and when they left the ground taking large numbers to sea with them, some ships as many as a hundred. " Of late years these defenceless creatures have had another very destructive enemy amongst them, viz. the wild dogs, descendants of dogs that have been turned adrift from ships or strayed away from time to time. Dogs are now roaming wild on all the larger islands. I was told that they keep in small packs of about eight or ten. We heard them on several occasions amongst the hills on Albemarle Island ; and, judging from their cry, I should think there were about that number in the pack. They were described as large, gaunt, savage animals; but I could not get any accurate information as to their colour, and whether it was uniform or not. These animals must make great havoc amongst the tortoises. They are said to watch when the newly hatched young ones first begin to agitate the sand, then to scrape it away and devour the whole brood. They prey also upon the half-grown animals; two which we found, each about 601b. in weight, had the back part of the breast-plate gnawed by dogs; in one it was still bleeding; and I saw the shells of two others of about the same size, from which the animals had been eaten clean ouc. " On account of the size of Albemarle Island, and the inaccessibility of many parts of it, I think tortoises are still very numerous on it and likely to be so for a long period in spite of their many enemies ; but on the other islands, including the smaller ones, such as Abingdon and Hood Islands, where they have been hitherto comparatively unmolested, I think that they are now doomed to speedy extermination, for this reason, that within the last two years the Orchilla trade has passed into the hands of one individual, and the crop is now gathered by a gang of 60 or 80 men working together, instead of by a number of small parties scattered on the different islands. At the time of our visit the Orchilla crop had just been gathered from Hood Island, and the camp after a four months' residence on it had moved to Chatham Island. It was said that about 70 tortoises had been killed by these people on Hood Island; and our guide thought it most probable that none were left alive. As they pass on to Abingdon and the other smaller islands, the tortoises on them must share the same fate; for in three or four months a party of 60 men, but sparingly provisioned and hunting eagerly for them, would be almost sure to discover every individual." PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1876, No. XXXV. 35 |
