;;7S GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO. [CHAP. xvn. 



continent, and which are placed under a peculiar climate, why 

 were their aboriginal inhabitants, associated, I may add, in 

 different proportions both in kind and number from those on 

 the continent, and therefore acting on each other in a different 

 manner why were they created on American types of organi- 

 zation ? It is probable that the islands of the Cape de Verd group 

 resemble, in all their physical conditions, far more closely the 

 Galapagos Islands than these latter physically resemble the coast 

 of America, yet the aboriginal inhabitants of the two groups are 

 totally unlike; those of the Cape de Verd Islands bearing the 

 impress of Africa, as the inhabitants of the Galapagos Archipelago 

 are stamped with that of America. 



I have not as yet noticed by far the most remarkable feature in 

 the natural history of this archipelago ; it is, that the different 

 islands to a considerable extent are inhabited by a different set 

 of beings. My attention was first called to this fact by the Vice- 

 Governor, Mr. Lawson, declaring that the tortoises differed from 

 the different islands, and that he could with certainty tell from 

 which island any one was brought. I did not for some time pay 

 sufficient attention to this statement, and I had already partially 

 mingled together the collections from two of the islands. I never 

 dreamed that islands, about fifty or sixty miles apart, and most of 

 them in sight of each other, formed of precisely the same rocks, 

 placed under a quite similar climate, rising to a nearly equal 

 height, would have been differently tenanted ; but we shall soon 

 see that this is the case. It is the fate of most voyagers, no sooner 

 to discover what is most interesting in any locality, than they are 

 hurried from it ; but I ought, perhaps, to be thankful that I 

 obtained sufficient materials to establish this most remarkable fact 

 in the distribution of organic beings. 



The inhabitants, as I have said, state that they can distinguish 

 the tortoises from the different islands ; and that they differ not 

 only in size, but in other "characters. Captain Porter has de- 

 scribed* those from Charles and from the nearest island to it, 

 namely, Hood Island, as having their shells in front thick and 

 turned up like a Spanish saddle, whilst the tortoises from James 

 Island are rounder, blacker, and have a better taste when cooked. 

 M. Bibron, moreover, informs me that he has seen what he con- 

 * Voyage in the U. S. ship Essex vol. i. p. 215. 



