368 GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO, [chap. xvii. 



here, judging by the eighty-five feet rise of the land since 

 the relics were embedded, is the more remarkable, as on the 

 coast of Patagonia, when the land stood about the same 

 number of feet lower, the Macrauchenia was a living beast ; 

 but as the Patagonian coast is some way distant from the 

 Cordillera, the rising there may have been slower than here. 

 At Bahia Blanca, the elevation has been only a few feet 

 since the numerous gigantic quadrupeds were there en- 

 tombed ; and, according to the generally received opinion, 

 when these extinct animals were living, man did not exist. 

 But the rising of that part of the coast of Patagonia, is 

 perhaps noways connected with the Cordillera, but rather 

 with a line of old volcanic rocks in Banda Oriental, so that 

 it may have been infinitely slower than on the shores ot 

 Peru. All these speculations, however, must be vague ; 

 for who will pretend to say that there may not have been 

 several periods of subsidence, intercalated between the 

 movements of elevation ; for we know that along the whole 

 coast of Patagonia, there have certainly been many and 

 long pauses in the upward action of the elevatory forces. 



CHAPTER XVn. 



GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO. 



The whole group volcanic — Number of craters — Leafless bushes 

 — Colony at Charles Island — James Island — Salt lake in 

 crater — Natural History of the group — Ornithology, curious 

 finches — Reptiles — Great tortoises, habits of — Marine lizard, 

 feeds on seaweed — Terrestrial lizard, burrowing habits, 

 herbivorous — Importance of reptiles in the Archipelago — 

 Fish, shells, insects — Botany — American type of org-anisa- 

 tion — Differences in the species or races on different islands 

 — Tameness of the birds — Fear of man, an acquired instinct. 



September ic^th. — This archipelago consists of ten principal 

 islands, of which five exceed the others in size. They are 

 situated under the Equator, and between five and six 

 hundred miles westward of the coast of America. They are 

 all formed of volcanic rocks ; a few fragments of granite 

 curiously glazed and altered by the heat, can hardly be con- 

 sidered as an exception. Some of the craters, surmounting 

 tlie larger islands, are of immense size, and they rise to a 



