THE GALAPAGOS. 



51 



THE GALAPAGOS. 



Plates 50-56. 

 We arrived at Wreck Bay, Chatham Ishmd, Galapagos (PI. 51), ou the 

 third of January, where we found a schooner with a supply of coal. We 

 reached Chatham Island towards the end of the dry season when everything 

 is dried up ; the vegetation seems dead with the exception of a few small wild 

 cotton plants, weeds, cactus, and an occasional mimosa (Pis. 52, 54). The great 

 gray slopes of the island (PI. 50, figs, i, 2), covered with dry brush and shrubs, 

 presented fully as uninviting an aspect as when Darwin described them.* 



^: 



Os THE Way to thk Haciexua, Cuatuam Island. 



When the " Albatross " visited the Galapagos in March, 1891, everything was 

 green, presenting a very marked contrast to its present desolate appearance." 

 The volcanic boulders covering the surf;ice are fully exposed to view 

 during the dry season (Pis. 53, 50), while during the rainy season they are 

 hidden by the thick growth of brush and bushes. Cactus do not flourish 



* Darwin, C. Journal of Hesearchcs in Geology and Natural History, 1840, p. i'll : — 

 " Nothing could bo less inviting than the first appearance. A broken field of black basaltic lava 

 is everywhere covered by a stunted brushwood, which shows little sign of life. . . . The thin woods, 

 ■which cover the lower parts of all the islands, excepting where the lava has recently flowed, appear 

 from a short distance ([uite leafless, like the deciduous trees of (he northern hi'misphere in winter. 

 It was some time before I discovered that, not only .almost every plaut w.as in full leaf, but that the 

 greater number were now in flower." (September 17, 183.").) 



■^ General sketch of the Expedition of the " Albatross" from February to May 1891, p, Gl, by 

 A. Agassiz, Bull. M. C. Z. XXIII, No. 1, 1802. 



