894 



THE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. Lect. VIII. 



of the world, and they are as completely distinct from all 

 other existing reptiles, as are the extinct Ignanodon and 

 Megalosaurus. The flora, too, contains more than a hun- 

 dred plants unknown elsewhere. There is not a fauna or 

 flora in any of the ancient geological periods that presents 

 greater anomalies.* 



The organic relations between the countries above 

 mentioned and their geological analogues, may be thus 

 expressed : — 



Modern Epoch. Secondary Epochs. 



„ _ ( Countries of the Carboniferous and Triassic periods, 



w \ as indicated by fossil remains. 



/ The lands whence the Stone field and Carboniferous 



\ Oolitic strata were derived. 

 „ p f The Country of the Iguanodon, and the regions 



| that supplied the detritus that formed the fluvio- 

 Archipelago . • j j. j 



\ marine secondary strata. 



In this point of view the Country of the Iguanodon, and 

 the Age of Reptiles, may be considered as merely disclosing 

 exaggerated effects of the organic law, which imparted to 

 the fauna of the Galapagos Islands its reptilian character. 



If the ancient philosophers, ere the discoveries of Colum- 

 bus had opened the New World to the European mind, 

 had found in a fossil state such collocations of animals and 

 plants as are presented by New Zealand, Australia, and the 

 Galapagos Islands, how impossible it would have been for 

 them, by any comparison with existing nature within their 

 circumscribed geographical boundary, to have imagined 

 that such assemblages of animated beings could exist con- 

 temporaneously with themselves. In fact, the present 

 geographical distribution of animals and plants affords as 

 many exceptions to the general rule of climatorial influence, 



* Sec Appendix F. 



