CHAP. XII.] 



BERMUDA. 



25.^ 



Important deduction from tlic peculiarities of the Azoreaii Fauna 

 and Flora. — There is one conclusion to be drawn from the almost 

 wholly European character of the Azorean fauna and flora which 

 deserves special attention, namely, that the peopling of remote 

 islands is not due so much to ordinary or normal, as to extra- 

 ordinary and exceptional causes. These islands lie in the course of 

 the south-westerly return trades and also of the Gulf Stream, and 

 we should therefore naturally expect that American birds, insects, 

 and plants would preponderate if they were conveyed by the 

 regular winds and currents, which are both such as to prevent 

 European species from reaching them. But the violent storms to 

 which the Azores are liable blow from all points of the compass ; 

 and it is evidently to these, combined with the greater proximity 

 and more favourable situation of the coasts of Europe and North 

 Africa, that the presence of a fauna and flora so decidedly 

 European is to be traced. 



The other North Atlantic Islands — Madeira, the Canaries, 

 and the Cape de Verdes — present analogous phenomena to those 

 of the Azores, but with some peculiarities dependent on their 

 more southern position, their richer vegetation, and perhaps 

 their greater antiquity. These have been sufficiently discussed 

 in my GeograiMcal Distribution of Animals (Vol. I. pp. 208- 

 215) ; and as we are now dealing with what may be termed 

 typical examples of oceanic islands, for the purpose of illus- 

 trating the laws, and solving the problems presented by the 

 dispersal of animals, we will pass on to other cases which have 

 been less fully discussed in that work. 



BERMUDA. 



The Bermudas are a small group of low islands formed of coral, 

 and blown coral-sand consolidated into rock. They are situated 

 in 82° N. Lat, about 700 miles from North Carolina, and some- 

 what farther from the Bahama Islands, and are thus rather 

 more favourably placed for receiving immigrants from America 

 and its islands than the Azores are with respect to Europe. 

 There are about 100 islands and islets in all, but their total area 



