to the naturalist, as he found that the animals were unlike those of other lands, there being even a difference in the forms living upon the various islands. He says: "The archipelago is a little world within itself, or rather a satellite attached to America, whence it has derived a few stray colonists, and has received the general character of its indigenous productions. Considering the small size of these islands, we feel the more astonished at the number of their aboriginal beings, and at their confined range. Seeing every height crowned with its crater, and the boundaries of most of the lava-streams still distinct, we are led to believe that within a period geologically recent the unbroken ocean was here spread out. Hence, both in space and time, we seem to be brought somewhat near to that great fact that mystery of mysteries-the first appearance of new beings on this earth."

Darwin was indefatigable in his collecting, and succeeded in finding twenty-six species of birds, all with one exception peculiar to the group.

The most striking objects, next to the tortoises, were the lizards, which, especially the one known to science as Amblyrhynchus—a most singular creature, -were indigenous to the spot. Two species were found, one being a land-loving form, while the other took to the water readily and lived on seaweed. The lizards ranged from four to five feet in length, and weighed about twenty pounds, and were extremely disagreeable creatures in every way. Their tails were flat and used as paddles, and numbers had been seen swimming out in the water in

Features of the Galapagos Islands. 109

droves or herds. It might be assumed that they lived upon fish, but Darwin opened the stomach of several and found their food to consist of sea-weed, which he found they obtained by diving. When approached, they lazily crawled away, squirting a drop of fluid from the nostrils when suddenly alarmed.

In examining the land species Darwin found that it had a round tail, and feet without webs, and so plentiful were they on James Island that it was dif ficult to find a place to pitch the tent free from their burrows. Like the turtles, they lived upon the cactus.

The islands proved a rich collecting ground for marine forms, fifteen fish being found here new to science; also sixteen new land-shells. The insects proved a disappointment to Darwin, who remarks that he never saw so poor a country in this respect, though twenty-five species of beetles were collected, among which were several new genera. Of flowering plants he discovered one hundred and eighty-five species, and forty-eight cryptogamic forms, one hundred of the former being new to science and indigenous to the archipelago.

The fact that seemed to have made the most impression upon the naturalist's mind was that the various islands, all in a group by themselves, should possess different inhabitants. "My attention," he says, "was first called to this fact by the vice-governour declaring that the tortoises differed from the different islands, and that he could with certainty tell from which island any one was brought. I did

not for some time pay sufficient attention to this statement, and I had already partially mingled together the collections from two of the islands. I never dreamed that islands about fifty or sixty miles apart, and most of them in sight of each other, formed of precisely the same rocks, placed under a quite similar climate, rising to a nearly equal height, would have been differently tenanted. It is the fate of most voyagers no sooner to discover what is most interesting in any locality than they are hurried from it; but I ought, perhaps, to be thankful that I obtained sufficient materials to establish this most remarkable fact in the distribution of organic beings."

Even the birds varied in the different islands, and in an examination of the insects collected by Darwin Mr. Waterhouse states that none were common to any two of the islands. The same was to a certain extent true with the plants. As to the reason for this Darwin says: "The only light which I can throw on this remarkable difference in the inhabitants of the different islands is, that very strong currents of the sea, running in a westerly and westnorth-westerly direction, must separate, as far as transportation by the sea is concerned, the southern islands from the northern ones; and between these northern islands a strong north-west current was observed, which must effectually separate James and Albemarle Islands. As the archipelago is free to a remarkable degree from gales of wind, neither the birds, insects, nor lighter seeds would be blown from island to island. And lastly, the profound depth of