CHAP. XII.] 
BERMUDA. 
253 
Important deduction from the peculiarities of the Azorean 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 Yerdes — 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 Geographical 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 32° 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 
