CHAPTER XIII 



THE GALAPAGOS ISLANDS 



Position and Physical Features — Absence of Indigenous Mammalia and 

 Amphibia — Reptiles — Birds — Insects and Land-Shells — The Keeling 

 Islands as Illustrating the Manner in which Oceanic Islands are Peopled 

 , — Flora of the Galapagos — Origin of the Flora of the Galapagos — Con- 

 cluding Remarks. 



The Galapagos differ in many important respects from the 

 islands we have examined in our last chapter, and the 

 differences are such as to have affected the whole character 

 of their animal inhabitants. Like the Azores, they are 

 volcanic, but they are much more extensive, the islands 

 being both larger and more numerous ; while volcanic 

 action has been so recent that a large portion of their 

 surface consists of barren lava-fields. They are considerably 

 less distant from a continent than either the Azores or 

 Bermuda, being about 600 miles from the west coast of 

 South America and a little more than 700 from Yeragua, 

 with the small Cocos Islands intervening; and they are 

 situated on the equator instead of being in the north tem- 

 perate zone. They stand upon a deeply submerged bank, 

 the 1,000 fathom line encircling all the more important 

 islands at a few miles distance, whence there appears to be 

 a comparatively steep descent all round to the average 

 depth of that portion of the Pacific, between 2,000 and 

 3,000 fathoms. 



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