s having
been for a long time separated from other land-areas, there we meet with
a more or less extraordinary profusion of unique species, often running
up into unique genera. And, in point of fact, so far as naturalists have
hitherto been able to ascertain, _there is no exception to this general
law in any region of the globe_. Moreover, there is everywhere a
constant correlation between the _degree_ of this peculiarity on the
part of the fauna and flora, and the _time_ during which they have been
isolated. Thus, for instance, among the islands which I have called
into evidence, those that are at once the most isolated and give
independent proofs of the highest antiquity, are the Galapagos Islands,
the Sandwich Islands, and St. Helena. Now, if we apply the method of
tabular analysis to these three cases, we obtain the following most
astonishing results. For the sake of simplicity I will omit the
enumeration of peculiar genera, and confine attention to peculiar
species. Moreover, I will consider only terrestrial animals; for, as we
have already seen, aquatic animals are so much more likely to reach
oceanic islands that they do not furnish nearly so fair a test of the
evolutionary hypothesis.

PECULIAR SPECIES.

+------------+---------+----------+-----------+----------+----------+
| | Shells. | Insects. | Reptiles. | Birds. | Mammals. |
| +---------+----------+-----------+----------+----------+
| Sandwich. | 400 | ? | 2 | 16 | 0 |
| Galapagos | 15 | 35 | 10 | 30 | 0 |
| St. Helena | 20 | 128 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
+------------+---------+----------+-----------+----------+----------+
| Totals. | 435 | 163 | 12 | 47 | 0 |
+------------+---------+----------+-----------+----------+----------+

NON-PECULIAR SPECIES.

+------------+---------+----------+-----------+----------+----------+
| | Shells. | Insects. | Reptiles. | Birds. | Mammals. |
| +---------+----------+-----------+----------+----------+
| Sandwich. | 0 | ? | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Galapagos | ? | ? | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| St. Helena | 0 | ? | 0 | 0 | 0 |
+------------+---------+----------+-----------+----------+----------+
| Totals. | 0 | ? | 0