188 RELATIONS OF THE INHABITANTS OF [Chap. XIII. 



On the Relations of the Inhabitants of Islands to those of 

 the nearest Mainland. 



The most striking and important fact for us is the 

 affinity of the species which inhabit islands to those of 

 the nearest mainland, without bein^ actually the same. 

 Xumerous instances could be given. The Galapagos 

 Archipelago, situated under the equator, lies at the 

 distance of between 500 and 600 miles from the shores 

 of South America. 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 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 Gala- 

 pagos 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 conditions of the South American coast : in fact, 

 there is a considerable dissimilarity in all these respects. 



