On two days the thermometer within the tent stood
for some hours at 93 degrees; but in the open air, in the wind and
sun, at only 85 degrees. The sand was extremely hot; the
thermometer placed in some of a brown colour immediately rose to
137 degrees, and how much above that it would have risen I do not
know for it was not graduated any higher. The black sand felt much
hotter, so that even in thick boots it was quite disagreeable to
walk over it.
The natural history of these islands is eminently curious, and well
deserves attention. Most of the organic productions are aboriginal
creations found nowhere else; there is even a difference between
the inhabitants of the different islands; yet all show a marked
relationship with those of America, though separated from that
continent by an open space of ocean, between 500 and 600 miles in
width. The archipelago is a little world within itself, or rather a
satellite attached to America, whence it has derived a few stray
colonists, and has received the general character of its indigenous
productions. Considering the small size of these islands, we feel
the more astonished at the number of their aboriginal beings, and
at their confined range.
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