CHAPTER XL 



AMONG THE OCEAN VOLCANOES. 



Galapagos Islands — Number of Craters — Gigantic Tortoises — Land 

 and Marine Lizards — New Marine Forms — Flora — Number of 

 Cryptogamic Plants — Variety of Forms on the Different Islands 

 — Tameness of the Birds. 



N the month of September 

 the Beagle crossed the line 

 again, this time on the Pa- 

 cific side, and cast anchor 

 among the islands of the 

 Galapagos Archipelago, 

 that are simply a group 

 of oceanic craters that 

 have forced their way up 

 through the ocean here, 

 and in the course of time 

 attained a somewhat lim- 

 ited fauna and flora. 

 The islands Darwin found were all volcanic rock, 

 some of the craters which he visited being of vast 

 dimensions, rising three or four thousand feet, their 

 sides pierced with small but ancient orifices from 

 which in the olden time lava had flowed. A some- 



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