262 THE GALAPAGOS TORTOISES. 



This accounts for the islands alone. There are two methods of explaining the 

 presence of the organisms: one by origin in place, another by accidental importa- 

 tions. If originating in place similarities in climate and other conditions might 

 be adduced to account for affinities, but accidental importations could hardly 

 be relied on for the development of parallel harmonious series such as are now 

 in place on the Galapagos. The accidents would be heterogeneous, and no 

 reason appears for limiting them in time or numbers. 



Theodore Wolf, at one time Geologist of Ecuador, published an account of 

 the Archipelago from actual study, adopted the oceanic theory and placed the 

 appearance of the islands in the Tertiary and later, thereby enhancing the 

 scientific interest because of the comparatively short period elapsing since 

 the uplifts. He recognized affinities between the insular and the continental 

 organisms, and found the rocks of the Galapagos basaltic and those of the 

 highlands of Ecuador trachyte and andesite. 



A most able recent advocate of the continental theory of origin was 

 George Baur, 1891. For months he made collections on a majority of the 

 islands in preparation for a comparative account of the life and conditions. 

 His conclusion was that the Archipelago included the tops of volcanic moun- 

 tains of a greater area of land at one time part of the continent, later sunken 

 below the sea-level. All the islands were formerly connected in a single large 

 one which by continued subsidence divided into a number, the highlands that 

 remained above the sea. Each of the latter in a long course of time developed 

 peculiar races, eventually species, in its plants and animals, because the condi- 

 tions were not identical. As proof especial stress is laid on the harmonious 

 distribution of the organisms. Nearly every island has its own races, and their 

 affinities commonly turn toward the continent. In this the idea of communica- 

 tion and transportation between the islands is not considered. 



Discovery of the Archipelago is said to have been made by Berlanga, 1535. 

 The Giant land tortoises, then found in immense numbers suggested the name 

 Galapagos, previously applied in Spain to fresh-water tortoises, a designation 

 which does not appear to have been entered on the maps as a name for the islands 

 till nearly fifty years later. The Spaniards paid little attention to the territory. 

 For a couple of centuries it was merely a place of call for a supply of fresh meat. 

 Among the earliest visitors were the buccaneers, Dampier and Cowley, 1684- 

 97, who furnished accounts of portions of the group. Cowley published a map 

 on which Spanish names were displaced by English, now perhaps the more 

 widely known. Ecuador, the present owner, clings to the Spanish American 



