EVIDENCES FROM GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION 105 
or included under the same genera, as beetles on the neighboring conti- 
nent. Now, as we have previously seen, no less than 200 of these 
species have lost the use of their wings. Evolutionists explain this 
remarkable fact by their general laws of degeneration under disuse, 
and the operation of natural selection, as will be shown later on; but, 
it is not so easy for special creationists to explain why this enormous 
number of peculiar species of beetles should have been deposited on 
Madeira, all allied to beetles on the nearest continent, and nearly all 
deprived of the use of their wings. And similarly, of course, with all 
the peculiar species of the Bermudas and the Azores. For who will 
explain, on the theory of independent creation, why all the peculiar 
species, both of animals and plants, which occur on the Bermudas 
should so unmistakably present American affinities, while those which 
occur on the Azores no less unmistakably present European affinities ? 
But to proceed to other, and still more remarkable, cases. 
The Galapagos Islands.—This archipelago is of volcanic origin, 
situated under the equator between 500 and 600 miles from the West 
Coast of South America. The depth of the ocean around them varies 
from 2,000 to 3,000 fathoms or more. This group is of peculiar 
interest, from the fact that it was the study of its fauna which first 
suggested to Darwin’s mind the theory of evolution. I will, therefore, 
begin by quoting a short passage from his writings upon the zodlogical 
relations of this particular fauna. 
“Here almost every product of the land and of the water bears the 
unmistakable stamp of the American continent. There are twenty-six 
land birds; of these, twenty-one, or perhaps twenty-three, are ranked 
as distinct species, and would commonly be assumed to have been here 
created; yet the close affinity of most of these birds to American 
species is manifest in every character, in their habits, gestures, and 
tones of voice. So it is with the other animals, and with a large pro- 
portion of the plants, as shown by Dr. Hooker in his admirable Flora 
of this archipelago. The naturalist, looking at the inhabitants of 
these volcanic islands in the Pacific, distant several hundred miles 
from the continent, feels that he is standing on American land. Why 
should this be so? Why should the species which are supposed to 
have been created in the Galapagos Archipelago, and nowhere else, 
bear so plainly the stamp of affinity to those created in America ? 
There is nothing in the conditions of life, in the geological nature of the 
islands, in their height or climate, or in the proportions in which the 
several classes are associated together, which closely resembles the 
