Features of the Galapagos Islands. 109 



droves or herds. It might be assumed that they 

 lived upon fish, but Darwin opened the stomach of 

 several and found their food to consist of sea-weed, 

 which he found they obtained by diving. When 

 approached, they lazily crawled away, squirting a 

 drop of fluid from the nostrils when suddenly 

 alarmed. 



In examining the land species Darwin found that 

 it had a round tail, and feet without webs, and so 

 plentiful were they on James Island that it was dif- 

 ficult to find a place to pitch the tent free from 

 their burrows. Like the turtles, they lived upon 

 the cactus. 



The islands proved a rich collecting ground for 

 marine forms, fifteen fish being found here new to 

 science ; also sixteen new land-shells. The insects 

 proved a disappointment to Darwin, who remarks 

 that he never saw so poor a country in this respect, 

 though twenty-five species of beetles were collected, 

 among which were several new genera. Of flower- 

 ing plants he discovered one hundred and eighty-five 

 species, and forty-eight cryptogamic forms, one hun- 

 dred of the former being new to science and indi- 

 genous to the archipelago. 



The fact that seemed to have made the most im- 

 pression upon the naturalist's mind was that the 

 various islands, all in a group by themselves, should 

 possess different inhabitants. " My attention," he 

 says, " was first called to this fact by the vice-gov- 

 ernour 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 



