454 



GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO. Sept. 1835. 



circumstance which^ perhaps^ is cMefly owing to the singu- 

 larly low temperature of the surrounding sea. Excepting 

 during one short season^ very httle rain falls^ and even then 

 it is not regular : but the clouds generally hang low. From 

 these circumstances the lower parts of the islands are ex- 

 tremely arid, whilst the summits, at an elevation of a thou- 

 sand feet or more, possess a tolerably luxuriant vegetation. 

 This is especially the case on the windward side, which first 

 receives and condenses the moisture from the atmosphere. 



In the morning (l7th,) we landed on Chatham Island, 

 which, like the others, rises with a tame and rounded outline, 

 interrupted only here and there by scattered hillocks — the 

 remains of former craters. Nothing could be less inviting 

 than the first appearance. A broken field of black basaltic 

 lava is every where covered by astunted brushwood, which 

 shows little signs of life. The dry and parched surface, 

 having been heated by the noonday sun, gave the air a close 

 and sultry feeling, like that from a stove : we fancied even 

 the bushes smelt unpleasantly. Although I diligently tried 

 to collect as many plants as possible, I succeeded in getting 

 only ten kinds ; and such wretched-looking little weeds would 

 have better become an arctic, than an equatorial Flora. 



The thin woods, which cover the lower parts of all the 

 islands, excepting where the lava has recently flowed, appear 

 from a short distance quite leafless, like the deciduous trees 

 of the northern hemisphere in winter. It was some time 

 before I discovered, that not only almost every plant was in 

 full leaf, but that the greater number were now in flower. 

 After the period of heavy rains, the islands are said to appear 

 for a short time partially green. The only other country, in 

 which I have seen a vegetation with a character at all ap- 

 proaching to this, is at the volcanic island of Fernando 

 Noronha, placed in many respects under similar con- 

 ditions. 



The natural history of this archipelago is very remarkable : 

 it seems to be a little world within itself ; the greater num- 

 ber of its inhabitants, both vegetable and animal, being found 



