If there be
any sensible difference in their climates, it must be between the
windward group (namely, Charles and Chatham Islands), and that to
leeward; but there seems to be no corresponding difference in the
productions of these two halves of the archipelago.
The only light which I can throw on this remarkable difference in
the inhabitants of the different islands is that very strong
currents of the sea running in a westerly and west-north-westerly
direction must separate, as far as transportal by the sea is
concerned, the southern islands from the northern ones; and between
these northern islands a strong north-west current was observed,
which must effectually separate James and Albemarle Islands. As the
archipelago is free to a most remarkable degree from gales of wind,
neither the birds, insects, nor lighter seeds, would be blown from
island to island. And lastly, the profound depth of the ocean
between the islands, and their apparently recent (in a geological
sense) volcanic origin, render it highly unlikely that they were
ever united; and this, probably, is a far more important
consideration than any other with respect to the geographical
distribution of their inhabitants.
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