236 Darwin, and after Darwin. 



I have called into evidence, those that are at once 

 the most isolated and give independent proofs of the 

 highest antiquity, are the Galapagos Islands, the Sand- 

 wich Islands, and St. Helena. Now, if we apply the 

 method of tabular analysis to these three cases, we 

 obtain the following most astonishing results. For 

 the sake of simplicity I will omit the enumeration of 

 peculiar genera, and confine attention to peculiar 

 species. Moreover, I will consider only terrestrial 

 animals ; for, as we have already seen, aquatic animals 

 are so much more likely to reach oceanic islands that 

 they do not furnish nearly so fair a test of the evolu- 

 tionary hypothesis. 



PECULIAR SPECIES. 



NON-PECULIAR SPECIES. 



From this synopsis we perceive that out of a total 

 of 658 species of terrestrial animals known to inhabit 



