354 Relations of the InJiabitan ts of Chap. xiii. 



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 proportion of the plants, as shown by 

 Dr. Hooker in his admirable Flora of this archipelago. The natu- 

 ralist, 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 con- 

 ditions of the South American coast : in fact, there is a consider- 

 able dissimilarity in all these respects. On the other hand, there 

 is a considerable degree of resemblance in the volcanic nature of 

 the soil, in the climate, height, and size of the islands, between the 

 Galapagos and Cape de Verde Archipelagoes : but what an entire 

 and absolute difference in their inhabitants ! The inhabitants of 

 the Cape de Yerde Islands are related to those of Africa, like those 

 of the Galapagos to America. Facts such as these, admit of no 

 sort of explanation on the ordinary view of independent creation ; 

 whereas on the view here maintained, it is obvious that the Gala- 

 pagos Islands would be likely to receive colonists from America, 

 whether by occasional means of transport or (though I do not 

 believe in this doctrine) by formerly continuous land, and the Cape 

 de Yerde Islands from Africa; such colonists would be liable 

 to modification, — the principle of inheritance still betraying their 

 original birthplace. 



Many analogous facts could be given: indeed it is an almost 

 universal rule that the endemic productions of islands are related 

 to those of the nearest continent, or of the nearest large island. 

 The exceptions are few, and most of them can be explained. 

 Thus although Kerguelen Land stands nearer to Africa than to 

 America, the plants are related, and that very closely, as we know 

 from Dr. Hooker's account, to those of America : but on the view 

 that this island has been mainly stocked by seeds brought with 

 earth and stones on icebergs, drifted by the prevailing currents, 

 this anomaly disappears. New Zealand in its endemic plants is 

 much more closely related to Australia, the nearest mainland, than 



