THE GALAPAGOS. 27 



creation — there seemed no adequate reason why the 

 successive forms should belong to the same order. In 

 his " Naturalist's Voyage Round the World " he says, 

 speaking of this subject : " This wonderful relation- 

 ship in the same continent between the dead and the 

 living will, I do not doubt, hereafter throw more light 

 on the appearance of organic beings on our earth, and 

 their disappearance from it, than any other class of 

 focts" (p. 173 in the third edition). 



The other class of evidence which impressed him 

 even more strongly was afforded by the relations 

 between the animals and plants of the several islands 

 of the Galapagos Archipelago and between those of 

 the Archipelago and of South America, nearly 600 

 miles to the East. Although the inhabitants of the 

 separate islands show an astonishing amount of 

 peculiarity, the species are nearly related, and also 

 exhibit American affinities. Concerning this, Darwin 

 writes in his " Voyage " (p. 398 in the third edi- 

 tion) : " Reviewing the facts here given, one is 

 astonished at the amount of creative force — if such 

 an expression may be used — displayed on these 

 small, barren, and rocky islands ; and still more so 

 at its diverse and yet analogous action on points so 

 near each other." Here, too, the facts were unintel- 

 ligible on a theory of separate creation of species, but 

 were at once explained if we suppose that the in- 

 habitants were the modified descendants of species 

 which had migrated from South America — the 

 migrations to the Archipelago and between the 



