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CHARLES DARWIN 



of former craters. Nothing could be less inviting than the 

 first appearance. A broken field of black basaltic lava, 

 thrown into the most rugged waves, and crossed by great 

 fissures, is everywhere covered by stunted, sun-burnt brush- 

 wood, which shows little signs of life. The dry and parched 

 surface, being heated by the noon-day sun, gave to the air 

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

 even that the bushes smelt unpleasantly. Although I dili- 

 gently tried to collect as many plants as possible, I suc- 

 ceeded in getting very few ; and such wretched-looking little 

 weeds would have better become an arctic than an equatorial 

 Flora. The brushwood appears, from a short distance, as 

 leafless as our trees during winter; and it was some time 

 before I discovered that not only almost every plant was 

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

 The commonest bush is one of the Euphorbiaceae : an acacia 

 and a great odd-looking cactus are the only trees which 

 afford any shade. After the season of heavy rains, the isl- 

 ands are said to appear for a short time partially green. The 

 volcanic island of Fernando Noronha, placed in many re- 

 spects under nearly similar conditions, is the only other 

 country where I have seen a vegetation at all like this of 

 the Galapagos Islands. 



The Beagle sailed round Chatham Island, and anchored 

 in several bays. One night I slept on shore on a part of the 

 island, where black truncated cones were extraordinarily 

 numerous: from one small eminence I counted sixty of 

 them, all surmounted by craters more or less perfect. The 

 greater number consisted merely of a ring of red scoriae 

 or slags, cemented together : and their height above the plain 

 of lava was not more than from fifty to a hundred feet; none 

 had been very lately active. The entire surface of this part 

 of the island seems to have been permeated, like a sieve, by 

 the subterranean vapours : here and there the lava, whilst 

 soft, has been blown into great bubbles; and in other parts, 

 the tops of caverns similarly formed have fallen in, leaving 

 circular pits with steep sides. From the regular form of the 

 many craters, they gave to the country an artificial appear- 

 ance, which vividly reminded me of those parts of Stafford- 

 shire, where the great iron-foundries are most numerous. 



