362 THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 



ON THE RELATIONS OF THE INHABITANTS OF ISLANDS TO 

 THOSE OF THE NEAREST MAINLAND 



The most striking and important fact for us is the affinity of 

 the species which inhabit islands to those of the nearest main- 

 land, without being actually the same. Numerous instances could 

 be given. The Galapagos Archipelago, situated under the equator, 

 lies at the distance of between 500 and 600 miles from the shores 

 of South America. Here almost every product of the land and of 

 the water bears the unmistakable stamp of the American con- 

 tinent. There are twenty-six land birds. Of these twenty-one, or 

 perhaps twenty-three, are ranked as distinct species, and would 

 commonly be assumed to have been here created; yet the close 

 affinity of most of these 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 hundred miles from 

 the continent, feels that he is standing on American land. Why 

 should this be so? Why 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 geo- 

 logical 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 re- 

 spects. On the other hand, there is a considerable degree of re- 

 semblance in the volcanic nature of the soil, in the climate, height, 

 and size of the islands, between the Galapagos and Cape Verde 

 Archipelagoes: but what an entire and absolute 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 or- 

 dinary view of independent 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 doctrine) 

 by formerly continuous land, and the Cape Verde Islands from 

 Africa; such colonists would be liable to modification — the prin- 

 ciple of inheritance still betraying their original birthplace. 



Many analogous facts could be given: indeed, it is an almost 



