the ocean between the islands, and their apparently recent (in a geological sense) volcanic origin, render it highly unlikely that they were ever united; and this, probably, is a far more important consideration than any other, with respect to the geographical distribution of their inhabitants. Reviewing the facts here given, one is astonished at the amount of creative force, if such an expression may be used, displayed on these small, barren, and rocky islands, and still more so at its diverse yet analogous action on points so near each other. I have said that the Galapagos Archipelago might be called a satellite attached to America, but it should rather be called a group of satellites, physically similar, organically distinct, yet intimately related to each other, and all related in a marked though much lesser degree, to the great American continent."

One of the most singular, indeed remarkable, features of life here was the tameness of the birds. They did not appear to know what a man was, and could be picked up by the hand or killed with a switch. Darwin frequently caught them in his hat, and actually pushed a hawk from a limb on which it was perched. While lying upon a rock, a mockingbird alighted upon a pitcher by his side, and began to sip the water, allowing him to take the vessel from the ground while upon it. On Charles Island he saw a boy sitting by a well with a bunch of dead birds which he had killed with a switch as they came there to drink.

From these observations the naturalist concluded that "the wildness of birds with regard to man is a

particular instinct directed against him, and not dependent on any general degree of caution arising from other sources of danger; secondly, that it is not acquired by individual birds in a short time, even when much persecuted, but that in the course of successive generations it becomes hereditary. With domesticated animals we are accustomed to see new mental habits or instincts acquired and rendered hereditary, but with animals in a state of nature it must always be most difficult to discover instances of acquired hereditary knowledge. In regard to the wildness of birds towards man there is no way of accounting for it except as an inherited habit: comparatively few young birds, in any one year, have been injured by man in England, yet almost all, even nestlings, are afraid of him; many individuals, on the other hand, both at the Galapagos and Falklands, have been pursued and injured by man, but yet have not learned a salutary dread of him. We may infer from these facts what havoc the introduction of any new beast of prey must cause in a country before the instincts of the indigenous inhabitants have become adapted to the stranger's craft or power."

Keeling Island-Among the Corals-Towed by a Turtle-Sagacity of the Birgos-Stinging Corals-Coral-Eating Fish-Theories Regarding Reef Structure-Mauritius-Extinction of Animals at St. Helena-Return to England.

ROM the Galapagos Islands Darwin sailed to Tahiti, thirty-two hundred miles, and then to New Zealand and Australia, reaching Keeling Island in the month of April. Here he found one of the richest fields for operation of the entire voyage, vast beds of growing coral extending in every direction, concealing myriads of forms new to his eyes, and of striking beauty. It was here that he formed some of his theories regarding the nature and origin of coral reefs, that created so much discussion in later years.

Collecting on shore he found disappointing, the