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 onr last chapter, and the differences 
are such as to have affected the whole character of their animal 
inhabitants. 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 
Veragua, with the small Cocos Islands intervening; and they are 
situated on the equator instead of being in the north temperate 
zone. They stand upon a deeply submerged hank, the 1,000 
fathom line encircling all the more important islands at a few 
miles’ distance, whence there appears to he a comparatively 
steep descent all round to the average depth of that portion of 
the Pacific, between 2,000 and 3,000 fathoms. 
The whole group occupies a space of about 300 by 200 miles. 
It consists of five large and twelve small islands ; the largest 
(Albemarle Island) being about eighty miles long and of very 
