2 24 Darwin, and afte7' Darwin. 



would be too extensive to be dealt with on the pre- 

 sent occasion, were we to attempt an exhaustive ana- 

 lysis of the floras and faunas of all oceanic islands 

 upon the face of the globe. Therefore, what I pro- 

 pose to do is to select for such exhaustive analysis a 

 few of what may be termed the most oceanic of 

 oceanic islands — that is to say, those oceanic islands 

 which are most widely separated from mainlands, 

 and which, therefore, furnish the most unquestionable 

 of test cases as between the theories of special crea- 

 tion and genetic descent. 



Azores. — A group of volcanic islands, nine in num- 

 ber, about 900 miles from the coast of Portugal, 

 and surrounded by ocean depths of 1,800 to 2,500 

 fathoms. There is geological evidence that the origin 

 of the group dates back at least as far as Miocene 

 times. There is a total absence of all terrestrial Ver- 

 tebrata, other than those which are known to have been 

 introduced by man. Flying animals, on the other hand, 

 are abundant ; namely, 53 species of birds, one species 

 of bat. a few species of butterflies, moths, and hymenop- 

 tera, with 74 species of indigenous beetles. All these 

 animals are unmodified European species, with the 

 exception of one bird and many of the beetles. Of 

 the 74 indigenous species of the latter, 36 are not 

 found in Europe ; but 19 are natives of Madeira or 

 the Canaries, and 3 are American, doubtless trans- 

 planted by drift-wood. The remaining 14 species 

 occur nowhere else in the world, though for the most 

 part they are allied to other European species. There 

 are 69 known species of land-shells, of which '^1 are 

 European, and 32 peculiar, though all allied to Euro- 



