418 RELATIONS OF THE INHABITANTS OF 



birds to American species is manifest in every character in 

 their habits, gestures and tones of voice. So it is with the 

 other animals, and with a large proportion of the plants, 

 as shown by Dr. Hooker in his admirable Flora of this 

 archipelago. The naturalist, looking at the inhabitants of 

 these volcanic islands in the Pacific, distant several hun- 

 dred miles from the continent, feels that he is standing on 

 American land. Whv should this be so? AVhv 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 resj^ects. 

 On the other hand, there is a considerable degree of resem- 

 blance in the volcanic nature of the soil, in the climate, 

 height, and size of the islands, between the Galapagos and. 

 Cape Verde Archipelagos: but what an entire and abso- 

 lute difference in their inhabitants! The inhabitants of 

 the Cape Verde Islands are related to those of Africa, like 

 those of the Galapagos to America. Facts, such as these, 

 admit of no sort of explanation on the ordinary view of in- 

 dependent 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 doc- 

 trine) by formerly continuous land, and the Cape Verde 

 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 Kergue- 

 len 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 

 view that this island has been mainly stocked by seeds 



