26 DARWINISM VERIFIED. [i. 



exterminate the marsupials. The only possible ex- 

 planation is that, whereas marsupials once covered the 

 terrestrial globe, and have been supplanted by better 

 adapted forms in the Old World and (with the ex- 

 ception of the opossum) in America, on the other 

 hand the isolation of Australia has allowed them there 

 to go on reproducing their kind until the present day. 

 In such an instance as this we have something very 

 nearly like crucial proof of the theory of " descent with 

 modifications." In like manner the extinct edentata 

 of South America are closely allied to the living ant- 

 eaters, sloths, and armadilloes. So, too, the indi- 

 genous floras and faunas of islands lying near conti- 

 nents always resemble the floras and faunas of the 

 continents near which they lie. The Galapagos archi- 

 pelago, distant some six hundred miles from the coast 

 of Chili, has a fauna which, though genetically distinct 

 from all others, is yet South-American in type, and 

 closely resembles the fauna of Chili. Again, among 

 the animals living on the different islands of this group> 

 we find specific diversity along with generic identity. 

 On the Darwinian theory this is just what might be 

 expected. The long isolation of the archipelago from 

 the continent has given opportunity for the rise of 

 generic divergences between their once homogeneous 

 faunas ; while the briefer isolation of the several 



