May this difference not be caused by the greater facility with which the eggs of lizards, protected by calcareous shells, might be transported through salt-water, than could the slimy spawn of frogs?
I will first describe the habits of the tortoise (Testudo nigra, formerly called Indica), which has been so frequently alluded to.
These animals are found, I believe, on all the islands of the Archipelago; certainly on the greater number.

They frequent in preference the high damp parts, but they likewise live in the lower and arid districts.

I have already shown, from the numbers which have been caught in a single day, how very numerous they must be.
Some grow to an immense size: Mr.Lawson, an Englishman, and vice-governor of the colony, told us that he had seen several so large that it required six or eight men to lift them from the ground; and that some had afforded as much as two hundred pounds of meat.

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.

The tortoises which live on those islands where there is no water, or in the lower and arid parts of the others, feed chiefly on the succulent cactus.