reach you in Martha’s Vineyard, and I 
heartily wish I could be there with you, 
and take some rest from this everlasting 
rocking.” Agassiz continues with his 
only statement: 
Our visit to the Galapagos has been full of 
geological and zoological interest. It is most 
impressive to see an extensive archipelago, 
of most recent origin, inhabited by crea- 
tures so different from any known in other 
parts of the world. Here we have a positive 
limit to the length of time that may have 
been granted for the transformation of 
these animals, if indeed they are in any way 
derived from others dwelling in different 
parts of the world. The Galapagos are so 
recent that some of the islands are barely 
covered with the most scanty vegetation, 
itself peculiar to these islands. Some parts 
of their surface are entirely bare, and a 
great many of the craters and lava streams 
are so fresh, that the atmospheric agents 
have not yet made an impression on them. 
Their age does not, therefore, go back to 
earlier geological periods; they belong to 
our times, geologically speaking; Whence, 
then, do their inhabitants (animals as well 
as plants) come? If descended from some 
other type, belonging to any neighboring 
land, then it does not require such unspeak- 
ably long periods for the transformation of 
species as the modern advocates of trans- 
Agassiz’s friend Benjamin Peirce, right, arranged for his voyage to the Galapagos. 
The Granger Collection 
