INHABITANTS OF ISLANDS 441 



est large island. The exceptions are few, and most of them 

 can be explained. Thus although Kerguelen 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 brought with earth and stones 

 on icebergs, drifted by the prevailing currents, this anomaly 

 disappears. New Zealand in its endemic pianos is much 

 more closely related to Australia, the nearest mainland, than 

 to any other region: and this is what might have been ex- 

 pected ; but it is also plainly related to South America, which, 

 although the next nearest continent, is so enormously remote, 

 that the fact becomes an anomaly. But this difficulty par- 

 tially disappears on the view that New Zealand. South 

 America, and the other southern lands have been stocked in 

 part from a nearly intermediate though distant point, namely 

 from the antarctic islands, when they were clothed with vege- 

 tation, during a warmer tertiary period, before the com- 

 mencement of the last Glacial period. The affinity, which 

 though feeble, I am assured by Dr. Hooker is real, between 

 the flora of the south-western corner of Australia and of the 

 Cape of Good Hope, is a far more remarkable case : but this 

 affinity is confined to the plants, and will, no doubt, some day 

 be explained. 



The same law which has determined the relationship be- 

 tween the inhabitants of islands and the nearest mainland, is 

 sometimes displayed on a small scale, but in a most interest- 

 ing manner, within the limits of the same archipelago. Thus 

 each separate island of the Galapagos Archipelago is ten- 

 anted, and the fact is a marvellous one, by many distinct 

 species ; but these species are related to each other in a very 

 much closer manner than to the inhabitants of the .American 

 continent, or of any other quarter of the world. This is 

 what might have been expected, for islands situated so near 

 to each other would almost necessarily receive immigrants 

 from the same original source, and from each other. But 

 how is it that many of the immigrants have been differently 

 modified, though only in a small degree, in islands situated 

 within sight of each other, having the same geological na- 

 ture, the same height, climate, &c. ? This long aiiiK'arcd to 



