18 MY ISLANDS. 



species; while in another case, I remember, a south 

 European weevil evolved before long into something so 

 wholly different from his former self that a systematic 

 entomologist would have been forced to enrol him in a 

 distinct genus. I often wish now that I had kept a 

 regular collection of all the intermediate forms, to pre- 

 sent as an illustrative series to one of your human 

 museums ; but in those days, of course, we none of us 

 imagined anybody but ourselves would ever take an 

 interest in these problems of the development of life, and 

 we let the chance slide till it was too late to re- 

 cover it. 



Naturally, during all these ages changes of other sorts 

 were going on in my islands elevations and sub- 

 sidences, separations and reunions, which helped to 

 modify the life of the group considerably. Indeed, 

 volcanic action was constantly at work altering the 

 the shapes and sizes of the different rocky mountain-tops, 

 and bringing now one, now another, into closer relations 

 than before with its neighbours. Why, as recently as 

 1811 (a date which is so fresh in my memory that I 

 could hardly forget it) a new island was suddenly formed 

 by submarine eruption off the coast of St. Michael's, to 

 which the name of Sabrina was momentarily given by your 

 human geographers. It was about a mile around and 

 300 feet high ; but, consisting as it did of loose cinders 

 only, it was soon washed away by the force of the 

 waves in that stormy region. I merely mention it here 

 to show how recently volcanic changes have taken place 

 in my islands, and how continuously the internal energy 

 has been at work modifying and re-arranging them. 



