OF THE GALAPAGOS AECHIPELAGO. 455 



In 1872 the 'Hassler,' with Professor Agassiz on board, reported one or two little 

 colonies on Indefatigable Island, leading a hard life, the prospect of any kind of agri- 

 culture being successfully carried on being very remote (see ' Nature,' 1872, p. 354). 



The advent of man to islands previously uninhabited is of the highest importance 

 to the existence of a peculiar indigenous fauna and flora ; and this is my reason for 

 having endeavoured to trace the date of the discovery of the Galapagos archipelago, 

 and to sketch out the intercourse since maintained with the outer world. As will be 

 seen above, I have been only partially successful ; but it may be safely said that these 

 islands have been visited from time to time for more than three centuries; so that 

 during this period man's influence has been more or less felt by the indigenous pro- 

 ducts. This influence is manifested in all similar cases by the capture and destruction 

 for food of all animals fit to eat ; and in order to establish a supply of fresh food for 

 vessels in need of it, pigs and goats are usually turned out in such places. The 

 vegetation chiefly sufiers from the latter, while upon such animals as easily fall a prey 

 to the former, the eflfect is generally very speedily marked. Cats often abound on such 

 islands, and rats and mice escaped from some vessel calling for wood and water. All 

 these prove enemies to some previously unmolested species. Fires, too, either wantonly 

 or carelessly lighted, sometimes work great destruction. 



For many years the great tortoises of the Galapagos afibrded abundance of fresh 

 food to ships in want of it ; and the small Dove of the islands seems to have been 

 destroyed in large numbers for the same purpose. But these birds, if we except the 

 Ducks, appear to have been the only ones molested in any numbers to supply food to 

 passing ships. 



Pigs and goats do not seem to have been turned out in the Galapagos so soon after 

 their discovery as was usually the case in other islands. I find no mention of pigs in 

 the writings of the earlier voyagers ; but Mr. Darwin says that on Charles Island there 

 were many wild pigs and goats. This was in 1835. In 1813 Captain Porter relates 

 how some goats belonging to his ship, which had been tethered on shore in James 

 Island, got loose and were not recovered. 



Dr. Habel saw a wild cat on Albemarle, and says that there are dogs and asses on the 

 same island, and that dogs and asses are also to be seen on Indefatigable and Chatham 

 Islands, horses also existing on the latter. He also speaks of wild cattle and swine on 

 Charles Island. 



So far as the birds of the Galapagos Islands are concerned, the effect produced by the 

 visits of ships, chiefly whalers, and the attempts at colonization do not seem to have 

 lessened their numbers at present. Judging from the records of the various authors I 

 have been able to consult, I should say that birds are about as numerous now as they 

 were two centuries ago. How long this will remain so is uncertain. All the species 

 are able to fly, and thus protect themselves from the wild pigs and cats, their most 

 open enemies. The eff'ect upon the vegetation produced by the cattle, horses, and 



VOL. IX. — PAKT IX. Mai/, 187Q. 3q 



