392 RELATIONS OF THE INHABITANTS OF 



and 600 miles from the shores of South America. Here 

 almost every product of the land and of the water bears the 

 unmistakable stamp of the American continent. There are 

 twenty-six land birds. Of these twenty-one, or perhaps 

 twenty-three, are ranked as distinct species, and would com- 

 monly be assumed to have been here created ; yet the close 

 affinity of most of these birds to American species is mani- 

 fest in every character in their habits, gestures, and tones of 

 voice. So it is with the other animals, and with a large 

 proportion of the plants, as shown by Dr. Hooker in his 

 admirable Flora of this archipelago. The naturalist, looking 

 at the inhabitants of these volcanic islands in the Pacilic, 

 distant several hundred miles from the continent, feels that 

 he is standing on American land. Why should this be so ? 

 Why should the species which are supposed to have been 

 created in the Galapagos Archipelago, and nowhere else, 

 bear so plainly the stamp of affinity to those created in 

 America? There is nothing in the conditions of life, in the 

 geological nature of the islands, in their height or climate, 

 or in the proportions in which the several classes are associ- 

 ated together, which closely resembles the conditions of the 

 South American coast. In fact, there is a considerable dis- 

 similarity in all these respects. On the other hand, there is 

 a considerable degree of resemblance in the volcanic nature 

 of the soil, in the climate, height, and size of the islands, 

 between the Galapagos and Cape Verde Archipelagoes : but 

 what an entire and absolute difference in their inhabitants ! 

 The inhabitants of the Cape Verde Islands are related to 

 those of Africa, like those of the Galapagos to America. 

 [Facts, such as these, admit of no sort of explanation on 

 the ordinary view of independent creation ; whereas, on the 

 view here maintained, it is obvious that the Galapagos 

 Islands would be likely to receive colonists from America, 

 whether by occasional means of transport or (though I do 

 not believe in this doctrine) by formerly continuous land, 

 and the Cape Verde Islands from Africa; such colonists 

 would be liable to modification — the principle of inheritance 

 still betraying their original birthplace. 



Many analogous facts could be given : indeed, it is an 

 almost universal rule that the endemic productions of islands 

 are related to those of the nearest continent, or of the near- 

 est large island. The exceptions are few, and most of them 

 can be explained. Thus, although Kerguelen Land stands 

 nearer to Africa than to America, the plants are related, and 



