CHARACTER OF THE GALAPAGOS. 763 



of the world. The Galapagos are so recent 

 that some of the islands are barely covered 

 with the most scanty vegetation, itself pecu- 

 liar to these islands. Some parts of their sur- 

 face are entirely bare, and a great many of 

 the craters and lava streams are so fresh, that 

 the atmospheric agents have not yet made an 

 impression on them. Their age does not, 

 therefore, go back to earlier geological pe- 

 riods ; they belong to our times, geologically 

 speaking. Whence, then, do their inhabitants 

 (animals as well as plants) come ? If de- 

 scended from some other type, belonging to 

 any neighboring land, then it does not require 

 such unspeakably long periods for the trans- 

 formation of species as the modern advocates 

 of transmutation claim ; and the mystery of 

 change, with such marked and characteristic 

 differences between existing species, is only 

 increased, and brought to a level with that of 

 creation. If they are autochthones, from 

 what germs did they start into existence ? I 

 think that careful observers, in view of these 

 facts, will have to acknowledge that our sci- 

 ence is not yet ripe for a fair discussion of 

 the origin of organized beings. . . . 



There is little to tell for the rest of the 



