84 I N A G U A 



relatives in the lee did not have to contend. 



Such a conclusion would be reasonable except for the fact 

 that new species or subspecies do not happen that way, except 

 possibly under very rare circumstances. Animals fit themselves 

 marvelously to all sorts of environments, adapting themselves 

 in a thousand ways to meet the incidents of life; but as recent 

 research has shown, they become new types because of some 

 mutation, some pecuhar alteration of energy deep within their 

 egg cells that sends individuals off in new directions. Animals 

 become new species or types because they cannot help them- 

 selves; the change is beyond their control. If the alteration does 

 not combat the environment they live and flourish; if not, they 

 struggle as best they may or eventually perish. 



Somewhere in the island's past, if the evidence of modern re- 

 search is correct, a family of dull brown Ameiva suddenly made 

 its appearance, either all at once or over a number of genera- 

 tions, and bred true. The wind had nothing to do with the muta- 

 tion except that it altered the topography of the newly risen 

 island so as to separate permanently the two forms, permitting 

 them to breed unmolested. The sand hills of Babylon suddenly 

 sweeping out of the sea may have been the original separation, 

 or Inagua may have been two or more islands which later con- 

 nected. The possibilities are legion. 



The finding of the new lizard put a new spring into my hob- 

 bling gait and I decided to press on. Naturalists are queer people; 

 it takes surprisingly little to please them. The Lagoon Chris- 

 tophe was at least fifteen miles away but so elated was I that I 

 determined to sleep that night by the wreck. 



By sunset I passed a cluster of coral and thatch huts where I 

 replenished my water supply from a barrel set beneath the 

 eaves to catch the rain. The water was dark brown, almost 

 coffee color from the thatch drippings and from the soot which 

 had accumulated during the years. Mosquito larvae swarmed in 



