284 



EXPLANATIONS. 



that is to say, it has been dry land for a much less s:)aca 

 of time, though one still considerable. What are' the 

 organic productions of this curious archipelago I In the 

 first place, they are " mostly aboriginal creations, found 

 nowhere else," though with an affinity to those of Amer- 

 ica. Many of them are even peculiar to particular islands 

 in the group. But the remarkable fact bearing on the 

 present inquiry is, that, excepting a rat or a mouse on 

 two of the islands, supposed to have been imported by 

 foreign vessels, there are no mammals in the Galapagos. 

 The leading terrestrial animals are reptiles, and these 

 exist in great variety, and in some instances of extraor- 

 dinary size. Lizards and tortoises particularly abound. 

 There are also birds, eleven kinds of swimmers and 

 w T aders, and twenty-six purely terrestrial. All this har- 

 monizes with our ideas of the world in general at the 

 time of the oolites. It speaks of time being necessary 

 for the completion of the animal series in any scene of 

 its development. The Galapagos have not had the full 

 time required for the completion of the series, and it is 

 incomplete accordingly.* The entire harmony of this 



* In the Vestiges, Australia is spoken of, for the same reason, as 

 apparently a new country, one which has been belated in its phys- 

 ical and organic development. We have there an order, or what 

 is called an order, of mammals, namely, the marsupialia, besides a 

 few monotremata ; all of which may be regarded as only mamma- 

 lian apices of certain bird families. The placental mammalian are 

 wholly wanting. One might suppose that the reasoning on which 

 the comparative recentness of this continent was inferred would 

 nave been readily intelligible, and that not even the most ingenious 

 perverseness of opposition could have hung a remark upon it. 

 Yet the Edinburgh Reviewer presents a note (p. 58), stating that, 

 on my own scheme of nature, New Holland ought to have been 

 considered as one of the oldest countries. " He might have argued 

 (from its flora, its cestraceonts, its trigonise, and its marsupials) 

 that it was as old as our oolites ; but this would not have served 

 the good ends of the scheme of development. An amusing exam- 

 ple of inconsistency." By old, I presume, is here meant duration 

 in the condition of dry land. I thoroughly agree with the West- 

 minster Review, when it says of this passage, "A more complete 

 miscomprehension of reasoning we have never met with." Assu- 

 redly it may well be held up, as that Review holds it, " as a warn- 

 ing to believers in exparte criticism." The fact is, since, as Pro- 

 fessor Phillips admits, there has been no break in the chain ol life 

 from the beginning, our other continents, whatever minor changes 

 they may have undergone, have continued without any entire 

 submergence since at least the commencement of terrestrial life. 

 They are, therefore, older than Australia could be presumed to be, 

 even upon the principle hinted at by the Edinburgh reviewer. 



