Why, On These Small Points
Of Land, Which Within A Late Geological Period Must Have
Been Covered By The Ocean,
Which are formed by basaltic lava,
and therefore differ in geological character from the American
continent, and which are placed
Under a peculiar climate,
- why were their aboriginal inhabitants, associated, I may
add, in different proportions both in kind and number from
those on the continent, and therefore acting on each other
in a different manner - why were they created on American
types of organization? It is probable that the islands of the
Cape de Verd group resemble, in all their physical conditions,
far more closely the Galapagos Islands, than these latter
physically resemble the coast of America, yet the aboriginal
inhabitants of the two groups are totally unlike; those of the
Cape de Verd Islands bearing the impress of Africa, as
the inhabitants of the Galapagos Archipelago are stamped
with that of America.
I have not as yet noticed by far the most remarkable feature
in the natural history of this archipelago; it is, that
the different islands to a considerable extent are inhabited by
a different set of beings. My attention was first called to
this fact by the Vice-Governor, Mr. Lawson, declaring that
the tortoises differed from the different islands, and that he
could with certainty tell from which island any one was
brought. I did not for some time pay sufficient attention
to this statement, and I had already partially mingled together
the collections from two of the islands.
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