126 DARWINISM STATED BY DARWIN HIMSELF. 



land. Why should this be so ? why should the species 

 which are supposed to have been created in the Galapagos 

 Archipelago, and nowhere else, bear so plainly the stamp 

 of affinity to those created in America ? There is nothing 

 in the conditions of life, in the geological nature of the 

 islands, in their height or climate, or in the proportions 

 in which the several classes are associated together, which 

 closely resembles the conditions of the South American 

 coast ; in fact, there is a considerable dissimilarity in all 

 these respects. On the other hand, there is a consider- 

 able degree of resemblance in the volcanic nature of the 

 soil, in the climate, height, and size of the islands, be- 

 tween the Galapagos and Cape de Verd Archipelagos ; 

 but what an entire and absolute difference in their inhab- 

 itants ! The inhabitants of the Cape de Verd Islands 

 are related to those of Africa, like those of the Galapagos 

 to America. Facts such as these admit of no sort of ex- 

 planation on the ordinary view of independent creation ; 

 whereas, on the view here maintained, it is obvious that 

 the Galapagos Islands would be likely to receive colonists 

 from America, whether by occasional means of transport 

 or (though I do not believe in this doctrine) by formerly 

 continuous land, and the Cape de Verd Islands from 

 Africa ; such colonists would be liable to modification, 

 the principle of inheritance still betraying their original 

 birthplace. 



Many analogous facts could be given : indeed, it is an 

 almost universal rule that the endemic productions of 

 islands are related to those of the nearest continent, or of 

 the nearest large island. The exceptions are few, and 

 most of them can be explained. Thus, although Ker- 

 guelen Land stands nearer to Africa than to America, the 

 plants are related, and that very closely, as we know from 

 Dr. Hooker's account, to those of America : but, on the 



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