Galápagos Islands

“ Nearly all authorities agree that it is not probable that they have crossed the wide sea between the Galapagos Islands and the American continent, although, while they are helpless, and quite unable to swim, they can float on the water. ”

“ For the Galapagos Islands are situated in a calm region of the globe, unvisited by those periodic storms and hurricanes which sweep over the North Atlantic, and which every year convey some straggling birds, insects, seeds, &c., to the Azores and Bermudas. ”

“ The voyage of the Essex gives reasonable expectation of an improved chart of the Galapagos Isles, the Rev. Mr. Adams, who sailed as Chaplain in that expedition, having employed himself actively in surveying them.
1687. Davis sails from the Galapagos to the Southward. When the season approached for making the passage round Cape Horne, Davis and his company quitted their retreat. The date of their sailing is not given. Wafer relates, 'From the Galapagos Islands we went again for the Southward, intending to touch no where till we came to the Island Juan Fernandez. ”

“ With a full-powered launch and diving apparatus, and a parent ship in attendance, and unlimited time, and patience, and money—but these be dreams beyond the reach of the penniless world-wanderer: dreams, nevertheless, that will assuredly one day be realized.
No one thinks of the Galapagos Islands. Situated a bare six hundred miles from the American coastline in the direct trade route between the South Pacific Islands and the United States of America, this group is seldom visited more than twice a year, and then for the most part by Ecuadorean schooners. ”

“ The amount of speciality is, however, wonderful, far exceeding that of any other islands; the only approach to it being made by New Zealand and Madagascar, which have a much more varied bird fauna and a smaller proportionate number of peculiar genera. The Galapagos, among the true oceanic islands, while presenting many peculiarities have only four out of the ten genera of Passeres peculiar. ”

“ They are traversed by ocean currents which are strong and constant, flowing towards the north-west from the coast of Peru; and these physical conditions have had a powerful influence on the animal and vegetable forms by which the islands are now inhabited. The Galapagos have also, during three centuries, been frequently visited by Europeans, and were long a favourite resort of buccaneers and traders, who found an ample supply of food in the large tortoises which abound there ”

“ In the Galapagos Islands, according to Darwin's notes, "there are twenty-six land birds; of these, twenty-one or perhaps twenty-three are ranked as distinct species, and would commonly be assumed to have been here created; yet the close affinity of most of these birds to American species is manifest in every character, in their habits, gestures, and tones of voice. So it is with, the other animals and with a large proportion of the plants. . .. The naturalist, looking at the inhabitants of these volcanic islands in the Pacific, feels that he is standing on American land." ”

“ The population is very largely Indian, with the usual Spanish intermixture. The total number of inhabitants is 1,275,000. The whites and the mestizos, or mixed bloods, comprise about 25 per cent of the population. The central plateau easily could sustain an agricultural population of twice that number.
The volcanic Galapagos Islands, lying 600 to 700 miles west of the mainland, on the equatorial line, usually are considered an Ecuadorian asset. They are not, however, a source of revenue, and the 300 or 400 people who inhabit them are not likely to increase to a larger number. ”

“ There is plenty of wood, but that near the shore is not large enough for other use than fire-wood. In the mountains the trees may be larger, as they grow to the summits. I do not think the watering-place we saw is the only one on the Island, and I have no doubt, if wells were dug any where beneath the hills, and not near the lagoon behind the sandy beach, that fresh water would be found in great plenty [59] .'
Since Captain Colnet's Voyage, Captain David Porter of the American United States' frigate Essex, has seen and given descriptions of the Galapagos Islands. ”

“ The inhabitants of the Cape Verde Islands are related to those of Africa, like those of the Galapagos to America. Facts, such as these, admit of no sort of explanation on the ordinary view of independent creation; whereas, on the view here maintained, it is obvious that the Galapagos Islands would be likely to receive colonists from America, whether by occasional means of transport or (though I do not believe in this doctrine) by formerly continuous land, and the Cape Verde Islands from Africa ”

“ As a field for the treasure hunter it is doubtful if any place in the world offers better chances of success to-day than the Galapagos Islands, but—and there is always a "but"—the uncertainty of wind and current amongst the islands makes it impossible for a sailing ship to undertake the search, a motor auxiliary is too unreliable, and a small steamer is too large for the creeks and reef channels it would be necessary to negotiate. ”

“ Can you not recommend them to get my 'Journal' and 'Volcanic Islands' on account of the Galapagos. If they come from the north it will be a shame and a sin if they do not call at Cocos Islet, one of the Galapagos. I always regretted that I was not able to examine the great craters on Albemarle Island, one of the Galapagos. In New Zealand urge on them to look out for erratic boulders and marks of old glaciers.
Urge the use of the dredge in the Tropics; how little or nothing we know of the limit of life downward in the hot seas? ”

“ And if these are too easy destinations, there lie the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Peru, said to contain many possibilities, of many kinds. Peru is supposed to have the islands on the market, and anybody with the money can purchase one, all his own. ”

“ Islands, which contain little groups of plants and animals peculiar to themselves, but most nearly allied to those of South America, have not hitherto received any, even a conjectural explanation. The Galapagos are a volcanic group of high antiquity, and have probably never been more closely connected with the continent than they are at present. They must have been first peopled, like other newly-formed islands, by the action of winds and currents, and at a period sufficiently remote to have had the original species die out, and the modified prototypes only remain. ”

“ Van Laar was seated at the table, eating his breakfast. Greaves closed the door and seated himself on his bed.
“Last year,” said he, “I was in command of a small vessel named the Hero. It matters not how it happened that I came to be at the Philippines. There I took in a small lading for Guayaquil. When about sixty leagues to the south’ard of the Galapagos Islands we made land, and hove into view an island of which no mention was made in any of the charts of those seas which I possessed. There was nothing in that. There is much land yet to be discovered in that ocean. ”

“ These islands afford, therefore, test examples of the great dispersive powers of certain groups of organisms, and thus serve as a basis on which to found our explanations of many anomalies of distribution. Passing on to the Galapagos we have a group less distant from a continent and of larger area, yet, owing to special conditions, of which the comparatively stormless equatorial atmosphere is the most important, exhibiting far more speciality in its productions than the more distant Azores. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Let us suppose that the Sandwich Islands, like many other submarine volcanoes, had never risen above the surface of the sea, then the endemic species of snails, birds, and plants which now live there could not have arisen, and if the volcanic group of the Galapagos Islands had arisen from the sea not in their actual situation, but forty degrees further south or north, or 1,000 kilometres further west, then it would have received other colonists, and probably fewer of them, and a different company of endemic species would be found there now. ”

“ The expedition sent to the Galapagos Islands by Hon. Timothy Hopkins in the interests of the Stanford University has returned after a ten months' colleering trip, bringing much valuable material in all branches of science, including several new species of birds from formerly unvisited islands. Edmund Heller M. C. O. C. and R. E. Snodgrass, both of Stanford University, were in charge of the expedition. ”

“ Puerto Chico, the settlement of some 200 people at Wreck Bay, is the port of entry. It is a naval base (navy: 1 launch) , and the center of population for all the Galápagos—an island group inhabited by fewer than 2,000 people. Water is the limiting factor, and only four of the islands provide enough water to sustain permanent colonies. ”

“ These groups of islands are both situated in stormy seas, and the immigrants are so numerous that hardly any specific change in the resident birds has taken place. The Galapagos receive no such annual visitants; hence, when by some rare accident a few individuals of a species did arrive, they remained isolated, probably for thousands of generations, and became gradually modified through natural selection under completely new conditions of existence. Less rare and violent storms would suffice to carry some of these to other islands, and thus the archipelago would in time become stocked. ”

“ DORA. "Emma, the Bay of Choco is on the coast of Granada, which, although it is a district of Columbia, is large enough to be regarded with some attention, particularly as it is actually one of the three great divisions of Columbia."
CHARLES. "Nearly in the same latitude, just over the equator, are the Galapagos. They are pretty islands: the cactus and aloe cover the sides of the rocks, flamingoes and turtle-doves fill the air, and the beach is covered with enormous turtle. But no trace whatever indicates the residence of man, and I believe no man has ever landed on these lonely shores." ”

“ All the species of the Galapagos but one are peculiar to the islands, while the Azores possess only one peculiar species, and Bermuda none—a fact which is clearly due to the continual immigration of fresh individuals keeping up the purity of the breed by intercrossing. In the Sandwich Islands, which are extremely isolated, being more than 2000 miles from any continent or large island, we have a condition of things similar to what prevails in the Galapagos, the land-birds, eighteen in number, being all peculiar, and belonging, except one, to peculiar genera. ”

“ The foreign population is small, the total being estimated at about 6000, of which 5000 are natives of the neighbouring Latin republics, 700 Europeans and Americans, and 300 Chinese.
Territorial Divisions and Towns.—The republic is divided into 15 provinces and one territory. The Galapagos Islands were declared a dependency of the province of Guayas in 1885, but are practically independent and constitute a second territory under the administration of jefe territorial appointed by the national executive. ”

“ For there are islands, such as the Galapagos, or, to take a less contested instance, some of the islands of the Malagasy Archipelago, undoubtedly continental, which have an exceedingly reduced number of mammals. An area of a certain size seems to be a necessity. ”

“ As already shown by the illustrative examples adduced in this chapter, some of the most remarkable and interesting facts in the distribution and affinities of organic forms are presented by islands in relation to each other and to the surrounding continents. The study of the productions of the Galapagos—so peculiar, and yet so decidedly related to the American continent—appears to have had a powerful influence in determining the direction of Mr. Darwin's researches into the origin of species ”

“ Observing the number of craters, that are usually found on each island of a group, and the vast amount of matter which has been erupted from them, one is led to attribute a high antiquity even to those groups, which appear, like the Galapagos, to be of comparatively recent origin. ”

“ Why should the species which are supposed to have been created in the Galapagos Archipelago, and nowhere else, bear so plainly the stamp of affinity to those created in America? There is nothing in the conditions of life, in the geological nature of the islands, in their height or climate, or in the proportions in which the several classes are associated together, which closely resembles the conditions of the South American coast ”

“ Of the immigrants to the Galapagos the majority doubtless die and leave no sign. A few will remain, multiply, and take possession, and their descendants are thus native to the islands. But, isolated from the great mass of their species and bred under new surroundings, these island birds come to differ from their parents and still more from the great mass of the land species of which their ancestors were members. ”