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.
He then proceeds at some length to explain how the Galapagos must have
been at first "peopled ... by the action of winds and currents," and
that the modified prototypes remaining are the "new species" which have
been "created in each on the plan of the pre-existing ones." This is
followed by a graphic sketch of the general effect of volcanic and
other action as affecting the distribution of species, and the exact
form in which they are found, even fishes giving "evidence of a similar
kind: each great river [having] its peculiar genera, and in more
extensive genera its groups of closely allied species."
After stating a number of practical examples he continues:
The question forces itself upon every thinking mind--Why are these
things so? They could not be as they are, had no law regulated
their creation and dispersion. The law here enunciated not merely
explains, but necessitates the facts we see to exist, while the
vast and long-continued geological changes of the earth readily
account for the exceptions and apparent discrepancies that here
and there occur.
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