Seeing every height crowned with its
crater, and the boundaries of most of the lava-streams still
distinct, we are led to believe that within a period geologically
recent the unbroken ocean was here spread out. Hence, both in space
and time, we seem to be brought somewhat near to that great
fact--that mystery of mysteries--the first appearance of new beings
on this earth.
Of terrestrial mammals there is only one which must be considered
as indigenous, namely a mouse (Mus Galapagoensis) and this is
confined, as far as I could ascertain, to Chatham Island, the most
easterly island of the group. It belongs, as I am informed by Mr.
Waterhouse, to a division of the family of mice characteristic of
America. At James Island there is a rat sufficiently distinct from
the common kind to have been named and described by Mr. Waterhouse;
but as it belongs to the old-world division of the family, and as
this island has been frequented by ships for the last hundred and
fifty years, I can hardly doubt that this rat is merely a variety
produced by the new and peculiar climate, food, and soil, to which
it has been subjected. Although no one has a right to speculate
without distinct facts, yet even with respect to the Chatham Island
mouse, it should be borne in mind that it may possibly be an
American species imported here; for I have seen, in a most
unfrequented part of the Pampas, a native mouse living in the roof
of a newly built hovel, and therefore its transportation in a
vessel is not improbable: analogous facts have been observed by Dr.
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