256 ALEXANDER AGASSIZ 



types, from which it has probably originated ; the last 

 indicating, as well as so many of the marine types col- 

 lected during this expedition, the close connection that 

 once existed between the Panamic region and the Carib- 

 bean and Gulf of Mexico. ,, 



Continuing his line along between Chatham and Inde- 

 fatigable Islands, Agassiz was disappointed in his poor 

 hauls : — 



On Board the Albatross, 



Indefatigable Id., April, 1891. 



" Here we are at anchor in Conway Bay on the west 

 end of Indefatigable Island, having done all we can 

 afford to do at the Galapagos. We spent nearly three 

 days at Chatham Island, which is the island where a 

 man by the name of Cobos has been having a farm since 

 '67 ; up to a couple of years ago he worked it with con- 

 victs, but they gave so much trouble and it was so 

 dangerous for him and his family that he applied to 

 the Ecuadorian Government to remove them, and now 

 has regularly paid workmen, a colony of about three 

 hundred including women and children. He has now 

 laid out quite a large cattle ranch, about twenty thou- 

 sand head of cattle, a large sugar plantation, a coffee 

 plantation, and a huge vegetable garden. He salts his 

 meats and carries on also an extensive fishery, sending 

 all his plunder to Guayaquil. He has a small trading 

 schooner which goes during the season about once a 

 month to the islands. It was quite funny to find Baur's * 

 letter had just reached him, a few day before we got 

 there, by an Ecuador man-of-war, which had been sent 

 evidently to watch us, they thinking the United States 



1 The naturalist, Georg Baur, then visiting the Galapagos. 



