EVIDENCES FROM GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION 107 
more restricted range, and therefore the least likely to have found 
their way to the islands with any frequency. 
The insect fauna of the Galapagos Islands is scanty, and chiefly 
composed of beetles. These number 35 species, which are nearly all 
peculiar, and in some cases go to constitute peculiar genera. The 
same remarks apply to the twenty species of land-shells. Lastly, of 
the total number of flowering plants (332 species) more than one 
half (174 species) are peculiar. It is observable in the case of 
these peculiar species of plants—as also of the peculiar species of 
birds—that many of them are restricted to single islands. It is also 
observable that with regard both to the fauna and flora, the Galapagos 
Islands as a whole are very much richer in peculiar species than either 
the Azores or Bermudas, notwithstanding that both the latter are 
considerably more remote from the nearest continents. This differ- 
ence, which at first sight appears to make against the evolutionary 
interpretation, really tends to confirm it. For the Galapagos Islands 
are situated in a calm region of the globe, unvisited by those periodic 
storms and hurricanes which sweep over the North Atlantic, and which 
every year convey some straggling birds, insects, seeds, etc., to the 
Azores and Bermudas. Notwithstanding their somewhat greater 
isolation geographically, therefore, the Azores and Bermudas are 
really less isolated biologically than are the Galapagos Islands; and 
hence the less degree of peculiarity on the part of their endemic 
species. But, on the theory of special creation, it is impossible to 
understand why there should be any such correlation between the 
prevalence of gales and a comparative inertness of creative activity. 
And, as we have seen, it is equally impossible on this theory to under- 
stand why there should be a further correlation between the degree 
of peculiarity on the part of the isolated species, and the degree in 
which their nearest allies on the mainland are there confined to narrow 
ranges, and therefore less likely to keep up any biological communi- 
cation with the islands. 
St. Helena.—A small volcanic island, ten miles long by eight 
wide, situated in mid-ocean, 1,100 miles from Africa, and 1,800 from 
South America. It is very mountainous and rugged, bounded for the 
most part by precipices, rising from ocean depths of 17,000 feet, to a 
height above the sea-level of nearly 3,000. When first discovered it 
was richly clothed with forests; but these were all destroyed by human 
agency during the 16th, 17th, and r8th centuries. The records of civili- 
zation present no more lamentable instance of this kind of destruction. 
