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 — Concluding 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 

 inhahitants. 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 and exten- 

 sive 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 eo^uator instead of being in the north temperate 

 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. 



The v/hole group occupies a space of about 300 by 200 miles. 

 It consists of five large and tw^elve small islands ; the largest 

 (Albemarle Island) being about eighty miles long and of very 



