362 GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO. [CHAP. xvn. 



landing, we had a very rough walk over a rugged field of recent 

 lava, which has almost surrounded a tuff-crater, at the bottom of 

 which the salt-lake lies. The water is only three or four inches 

 deep, and rests on a layer of beautifully crystallized, white salt. 

 The lake is quite circular, and is fringed with a border of bright 

 green succulent plants ; the almost precipitous walls of the crater 

 are clothed with wood, so that the scene was altogether both pic- 

 turesque and curious. A few years since, the sailors belonging to 

 a sealing-vessel murdered their captain in this quiet spot ; and we 

 saw his skull lying among the bushes. 



During the greater part of our stay of a week, the sky was 

 cloudless, and if the trade-wind failed for an hour, the heat became 

 very oppressive. On two days, the thermometer within the tent 

 stood for some hours at 93 ; but in the open air, in the wind and 

 sun, at only 85. The sand was extremely hot ; the thermometer 

 placed in some of a brown colour immediately rose to 137, and 

 how much above that it would have risen, I do not know, for it 

 was not graduated any higher. The black sand felt much hotter, 

 so that even in thick boots it was quite disagreeable to walk 

 over it. 



The natural history of these islands is eminently curious, and 

 well deserves attention. Most of the organic productions are abori- 

 ginal creations, found nowhere else; there is even a difference 

 between the inhabitants of the different islands ; yet all show a 

 marked relationship with those of America, though separated from 

 that continent by an open space of ocean, between 500 and 600 

 miles in width. The archipelago is a little world within itself, or 

 rather a satellite attached to America, whence it has derived a few 

 stray colonists, and has received the general character of its indi- 

 genous productions. Considering the small size of these islands, 

 we feel the more astonished at the number of their aboriginal 

 beings, and at their confined range. Seeing every height crowned 

 with its crater, and the boundaries of most of the lava-streams still 

 distinct, we are led to believe that within a period, geologically 

 recent, the unbroken ocean was here spread out. Hence, both in 

 space and time, we seem to be brought somewhat near to that great 

 fact that mystery of mysteries the first appearance of new beings 

 on this earth. 



Of terrestrial mammals, there is only one which must be con- 



