EVIDENCES FROM GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION 105 



or included under the same genera, as beetles on the neighboring conti- 

 nent. Now, as we have previously seen, no less than 200 of these 

 species have lost the use of their wings. Evolutionists explain this 

 remarkable fact by their general laws of degeneration under disuse, 

 and the operation of natural selection, as will be shown later on; but 

 it is not so easy for special creationists to explain why this enormous 

 number of peculiar species of beetles should have been deposited on 

 Madeira, all allied to beetles on the nearest continent, and nearly all 

 deprived of the use of their wings. And similarly, of course, with all 

 the peculiar species of the Bermudas and the Azores. For who will 

 explain, on the theory of independent creation, why all the peculiar 

 species, both of animals and plants, which occur on the Bermudas 

 should so unmistakably present American affinities, while those which 

 occur on the Azores no less unmistakably present European affinities ? 

 But to proceed to other, and still more remarkable, cases. 



The Galapagos Islands. This archipelago is of volcanic origin, 

 situated under the equator between 500 and 600 miles from the West 

 Coast of South America. The depth of the ocean around them varies 

 from 2,000 to 3,000 fathoms or more. This group is of peculiar 

 interest, from the fact that it was the study of its fauna which first 

 suggested to Darwin's mind the theory of evolution. I will, therefore, 

 begin by quoting a short passage from his writings upon the zoological 

 relations of this particular fauna. 



''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 commonly be assumed to have been here 

 created; yet the close affinity of most of these birds to American 

 species is manifest in every character, in their habits, gestures, and 

 tones of voice. So it is with the other animals, and with a large pro- 

 portion 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 Pacific, 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 hi the Galapagos Archipelago, and nowhere else, 

 bear so plainly the stamp of affinity to those created m 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 associated together, which closely resembles the 



