erican continent, the more certainly
are they found to have their nearest relations among those South
American forms which have the more restricted range, and are therefore
the least likely to have found their way to the islands with any
frequency.

[23] Wallace, _Island Life_, pp. 271-2.

The insect fauna of the Galapagos islands is scanty, and chiefly
composed of beetles. These number 35 species, which are nearly all
peculiar, and in some cases go to constitute peculiar genera. The same
remarks apply to the twenty species of land-shells. Lastly, of the total
number of flowering plants (332 species) more than one half (174
species) are peculiar. It is observable in the case of these peculiar
species of plants--as also of the peculiar species of birds--that many
of them are restricted to single islands. It is also observable that,
with regard both to the fauna and flora, the Galapagos Islands as a
whole are very much richer in peculiar species than either the Azores or
Bermudas, notwithstanding that both the latter are considerably more
remote from their nearest continents. This difference, which at first
sight appears to make against the evolutionary interpretation, really
tends to confirm it. 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.
Notwithstanding their somewhat greater isolation geographically,
therefore, the Azores and Bermudas are really less isolated biologically
than are the Galapagos Islands; and hence the less degree of peculiarity
on the part of their endemic species. But, on the theory of special
creation, it is impossible to understand why there should be any such
correlation between the prevalence of gales and a comparative inertness
of creative activity. And, as we have seen, it is equally impossible on
this theory to understand why there should be a further correlation
between the _degree_ of peculiarity on the part of the isolated
species, and the degree in which their nearest allies on the mainland
are there confined to narrow ranges, and therefore less likely to keep
up any biological communication with the islands.

_St. Helena._--A small volcanic island, ten miles long by eight wide,
situated in mid-ocean, 1100 miles from Africa, and 1800 from South
America. It is very mountainous