762 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



had become heated again, and had flowed 

 out, leaving the outside crust standing. The 

 whole story of this lava bed is so clearly told 

 in its blackened and extinct remains, that it 

 needs no stretch of the imagination to recre- 

 ate the scene. It is again a heaving, palpi- 

 tating sheet of fire ; the dead slags are aglow, 

 and the burned - out furnaces cast up their 

 molten, blazing contents, as of old. Now it 

 is the home of the large red and orange- 

 colored iguanas, of which a number were cap- 

 tured, both alive and dead. These islands 

 proved, indeed, admirable collecting grounds, 

 the more interesting from the peculiarity of 

 their local fauna. 



FROM AGASSIZ TO PROFESSOR PEIRCE. 



OFF GUATEMALA, July 29. 



. . . Our visit to the Galapagos has been 

 full of geological and zoological interest. It 

 is most impressive to see an extensive archi- 

 pelago, of most recent origin, inhabited by 

 creatures so different from any known in 

 other parts of the world. Here we have a 

 positive limit to the length of time that may 

 have been granted for the transformation of 

 these animals, if indeed they are in any way 

 derived from others dwelling in different parts 



