64 BULLETIN OF THE 
other islands we visited. Innumerable spits, composed of huge lava 
blocks running into the sea and separated by small coral rock beaches, 
similar to those I have described at Wreck Bay on Chatham Island, at 
Black Beach on Charles Island, and on Duncan Island. Conway Bay 
itself, where we anchored for the night, on Indefatigable Island, is a fine 
example of one of the coral rock beaches so characteristic of the Galapa- 
gos. Off to the north of Conway Bay are the Guy Fawkes Islands, one 
of the old craters of which is still barely visible. The craters of the 
other island appear to have been sloughed off on their southern face. 
Captain Tanner, in the report of his visit to the Galapagos in 1888, 
says: “ Indefatigable Island is circular in form and about twenty miles 
in diameter, with a central cone, in the basin of which lies a vast tract 
of arable, well watered land, capable of growing all the tropical and semi- 
tropical products in great perfection. Its natural resources are greater 
than those of any other island in the group, yet it is uninhabited and 
wholly undeveloped. The low lands are devoid of water, and, like the 
other islands, barren and desolate during the dry season, the rain only 
bringing life to the bushes and stunted trees, which find a precarious 
existence among the lava boulders and scoria.” 
Narborough Island, as stated by Captain Tanner, “ presented in the 
distance (as seen from the weather side) an unbroken covering of rich 
green foliage to the very summit of its central peak, 3,720 feet above 
the sea, and, on nearer approach, a fringe of luxuriant mangroves, 
bordering the eastern shore and the margin of a small bay or lagoon, 
added fresh charm to the view. As we steamed through the narrows 
between Narborough and Albemarle Islands the contrast of a rich and 
abundant vegetation on the one hand, and utter barrenness and desola- 
tion on the other, was very striking.” 
Narborough, which on this trip we only saw from a distance, towering 
behind Albemarle, may show the character of the building up of the 
separate islands better even than Indefatigable, for its single cone, rising 
to a height of over 3,700 fect, still possesses a well preserved crater. 
The composite nature of some of the islands is best seen on Albe- 
marle. It rises to a greater height than any of the other islands 
(4,700 feet), and, as we saw it from the sea, the lower slopes of its 
five highest cones passed one into the other at various elevations. The 
three northern ones were separated by a comparatively low isthmus 
from the two southern peaks, which form the southern half of the island, 
the general trend of which is nearly at right angles to that of the north- 
ern craters. 
