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Ch. XL] 



REPTILES OF THE GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO. 



221 



Sundance in secondary periods, to the progress which the 



more 



highly organised state. 



mentio 



maintain 



the ape, elephant, rhinoceros, tiger, deer, and other 



mam 



small 



bv sufficient heat. If they are absolutely wanting in polar re- 

 ins it is evidently not the competition of the bears, musk- 

 buffalos, walruses, and whales which sets a limit to their range 

 in that direction, but the power of frost. 



There is no area in the globe at present, between the 

 parallels of 40° and 60°, where a climate exists like that which 

 we may suppose to have prevailed when the triassic and oolitic 

 rocks were formed. But perhaps the nearest approach to it 

 may be found in the Galapagos Archipelago, which is situated 

 nearly 600 miles west of the coast of Peru, and which con- 

 tains some islands from 3,000 to 4,000 feet high, and one of 

 them 75 miles long. Placed under the equator, the heat is 



m 



greater tucm x±x wwr — . 



the surrounding ocean, and by a current of cold water which 

 flows from Patagonia northwards along the west coast of 

 South America. This archipelago has been called the land of 

 reptiles, from the extraordinary number of large t 

 together with lizards and snakes, which it supports, 

 the lizards are two species of a peculiar genus, called Am- 



jstrial and the other aquatic. 



Am on g 



them terr 



marine 



water ; 



exam 



of some sea-snakes, of a reptile proper to the ocean, and it 

 serves to show that the existence of seals and cetacea, which 



bar to • the coexistence of 

 ion. The number of indi- 

 vidual" tortoises and other reptiles could not possibly be so 



form no 

 same res 



mam 



mouse 



presentative of this class in the Galapagos ; in which respect 

 we have a state of things strictly analogous to that of the 

 secondary periods before alluded to. 

 The rich marine fauna of the St. Cassian beds in the 



