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GALAPAGOS ISLANDS

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Originally appearing in Volume V11, Page 393 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GALAPAGOS ISLANDS , an See also:

archipelago of five larger and ten smaller islands in the Pacific Ocean, exactly under the See also:equator. The nearest See also:island to the See also:South See also:American See also:coast lies 58o m. W. of See also:Ecuador, to which See also:country they belong. The name is derived from galdpago, a See also:tortoise, on See also:account of the See also:giant See also:species, the characteristic feature of the See also:fauna. The islands were discovered See also:early in the 16th See also:century by Spaniards, who gave them their See also:present name. They were then uninhabited. The See also:English names of the individual islands were probably given by See also:buccaneers, for whom the See also:group formed a convenient See also:retreat. The larger members of the group, several of which attain an See also:elevation of 2000 to 2500 ft., are See also:Albemarle or Isabela (too m. See also:long, 28 m. in extreme breadth, with an See also:area of 165o sq. m. and an extreme elevation of 5000 ft.), See also:Narborough or See also:Fernandina, Indefatigable or See also:Santa Cruz, See also:Chatham or See also:San Cristobal, See also:James or San See also:Salvador, and See also:Charles or Santa Maria. The See also:total See also:land area is estimated at about 2870 sq. m. (about that of the See also:West See also:Riding of See also:Yorkshire). The extraordinary number of craters, a few of which are reported still to be active, gives See also:evidence that the archipelago is the result of volcanic See also:action. The number of See also:main craters may be about twenty-five, but there are very many small eruptive cones on the flanks of the old volcanoes.

There is a convict See also:

settlement on Chatham with 1 Apparently derived from the See also:Chinese Kau-liang-Kiang, i.e. Kau-See also:Bang See also:ginger, the See also:term applied by the Chinese to See also:galangal, after the prefecture Kau-chau fu in See also:Canton See also:province, formerly called Kauliang See also:China, F.H See also:Porter See also:Smith, Contrib. to the Materia Medica . . . of .p.9, 17 ).some goo inhabitants living in See also:low thatched or See also:iron-roofed huts, under the supervision of a See also:police See also:commissioner and other officials of Ecuador, by which country the group was annexed in 1832, when See also:General Villamil founded Floreana on Charles Island, naming it in See also:honour of Juan Jose See also:Flores, See also:president of Ecuador. A See also:governor has been appointed since 1885, some importance being foreseen for the islands in connexion with the cutting of the See also:Panama See also:canal, as the group lies on the route to See also:Australia opened up by that See also:scheme. Charles Island, the most valuable of the group, is cultivated by a small See also:colony. On many of the islets numerous tropical fruits are found growing See also:wild, but they are no doubt escapes from cultivation, just as the large herds of wild See also:cattle, horses, donkeys, pigs, goats and See also:dogs-the last large and fierce—which occur abundantly on most of the islands have escaped from domestication. The shores of the larger islands are fringed in some parts with a dense barrier of mangroves, backed by an often impenetrable thicket of tropical undergrowth, which, as the ridges are ascended, give See also:place to taller trees and deep See also:green bushes which are covered with See also:orchids and trailing See also:moss (orchilla), and from which creepers hang down interlacing the vegetation. But generally the low grounds are parched and rocky, presenting only a few thickets of Peruvian See also:cactus and stunted shrubs, and a most uninviting See also:shore. The contrast between this low See also:zone and the upper zone of See also:rich vegetation (above about Soo ft.) is curiously marked. From See also:July to See also:November the clouds hang low on the mountains, and give moisture to-the upper zone, while the See also:climate of the See also:lower is dry. See also:Rain in the lower zone is scanty, and from May to See also:January does not occur. The porous See also:soil absorbs the moisture, and fresh See also:water is scarce.

Though the islands are under the equator, the climate is not intensely hot, as it is tempered by See also:

cold currents from the See also:Antarctic See also:sea, which, having followed the coast of See also:Peru as far as Cape Blanco, See also:bear off to the N.W. towards and through the Galapagos. The mean temperature of the lower zone is about 71° F., that of the upper from 66° to 62°. The Galapagos Islands are of some commercial importance to Ecuador, on account of the See also:guano and the orchilla moss found on them and exported to See also:Europe. Except on Charles Island, where settlement has existed longest, little or no See also:influence of the presence of See also:man is evident in the group; still, the See also:running wild of dogs and See also:cats, and, as regards the vegetation, especially goats, must in a comparatively See also:short See also:period greatly modify the biological conditions of the islands. The origin and development of these conditions, in islands so distinctly oceanic as the Galapagos, have given its See also:chief importance to this archipelago since it was visited by See also:Darwin in the " Beagle." The Galapagos archipelago possesses a rare ad-vantage from its isolated situation, and from the fact that its See also:history has never been interfered with by any See also:aborigines of the human See also:race. Of the seven species of giant tortoises known to See also:science (although at the See also:discovery of the islands there were probably fifteen) all are indigenous, and each is confined to its own islet. There also occurs a See also:peculiar genus of lizards with two species, the one marine, the other terrestrial. The See also:majority of the birds are of endemic species peculiar to different islets, while more than See also:half belong to peculiar genera. More than half of the See also:flora is unknown elsewhere. Since 186o several visits have been paid to the group by scientific investigators—by Dr Habel in 1868; Messrs See also:Baur and See also:Adams, and the naturalists of the " See also:Albatross," between 1888 and 1891; and in 1897–1898 by Mr Charles See also:Harris, whose See also:journey was specially under-taken at the instance of the Hon. See also:Walter See also:Rothschild. Very See also:complete collections have therefore, as a result of these expeditions, been brought together; but their examination does not materially See also:change the facts upon which the conclusions arrived at by Darwin, from the evidence of the birds and See also:plants, were based; though he " no doubt would have paid more See also:attention to [the evidence afforded by Land-tortoisesi, if he had been in See also:possession of facts with which we are acquainted now " (See also:Gunther).

His conclusions were that the group " has never been nearer the mainland than it is now, nor have its members been at any See also:

time closer together "; and that the See also:character of the flora and fauna is the result of species straggling over from See also:America, at long intervals of time, to the different islets, where in their See also:isolation they have gradually varied in different degrees and ways from their ancestors. Equally indecisive is the further exploration as to evidence for the See also:opinion held by other naturalists that the endemic species of the different islands have resulted from subsidences, through volcanic action, which have reduced one large island See also:mass into a number of islets, wherein the separated species became differentiated during their isolation. The presence of these giant See also:reptiles on the group is the chief fact on which a former land connexion with the See also:continent of America may be sustained. " 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 See also:float on the water. If their ancestors had been carried out to sea once or twice by a See also:flood and safely drifted as far as the Galapagos Islands " (See also:Wallace), " they must have been numerous on the continent " (Rothschild and Hartert). No remains, and of course no living species, of these tortoises are known to exist or have existed on the mainland. Rothschild and Hartert think " it is more natural to assume the disappearance of a See also:great stock of animals, the remains of which have survived, . . . than to assume the disappearance in comparatively See also:recent times (i.e. in the See also:Eocene period or later) of enormous land masses." Past elevations of land, how-ever (and doubtless equally great subsidences) have taken place in South America since the Eocene, and the conclusion that extensive areas of land have subsided in the See also:Indian Ocean has long been based on a somewhat similar See also:distribution of giant tortoises in the Mascarene region.

End of Article: GALAPAGOS ISLANDS

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