THE GALArAGOS. 



61 



THE GALAPAGOS. 



Plates 50-56. 

 We arrived at Wreck Bay, Chatham Ishmd, Gahapagos (PI. 51), on the 

 third of January, where we found a schooner with a supply of coal. We 

 reached Chatham Island towards the end of the dry season when everything 

 is dried up ; the vegetation seems dead with the exception of a few small wild 

 cotton plants, weeds, cactus, and an occasionatmimosa (Pis. 52, 54). The great 

 gray slopes of the island (PI. 50, figs. 1, 5), covered with dry brush and shrubs, 

 presented fully as uninviting an aspect as when Darwin described them.* 



(».N IHK Way Ki IHK llAClKN'DA, ClIATnAM ISLAND. 



When the " Albatross " visited the Galapagos in March, 1891, everything was 

 green, presenting a veiy marked contrast to its present desolate appearance.^ 

 The volcanic boulders covering the snrflice are fully exposed to view 

 during the dry season (Pis. 53, 56), while during the rainy season they are 

 hidden by the thick growth of brush and bushes. Cactus do not flourish 



1 Darwin, C. Journal of Researches in Geology and Natural History, 1840, p. 4.54 : — • 

 " Nothing could be less inviting than the first appearance. A l)roken field of black basaltic lava 

 is everyv^here covered by a stunted brushwood, which shows little sign of life. . . . The thin woods, 

 which cover the lower parts of all the islands, excepting where the lava has recently flowed, appear 

 from a short distance quite leafless, like the deciduous trees of the northern hemisphere in winter. 

 It was some time before I discovered that, not only almost every plant was in full leaf, but that the 

 greater number were now in flower." (September 17, 1835.) 



'■* General sketch of the Expedition of the " Albatross" from February to May 1891, p, 01, by 

 A. Agassiz, Bull. M. C. Z. XXIII, No. 1, 1892. 



