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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: GAG-GEO |
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GALAPAGOS ISLANDS , an archipelago of five larger and ten smaller islands in the Pacific Ocean, exactly under the equator . The nearest island to the South American coast lies 58o m. W. of Ecuador, to which country they belong. The name is derived from galdpago, a tortoise, on account of the giant species, the characteristic feature of the fauna. The islands were discovered early in the 16th century by Spaniards, who gave them their present name. They were then uninhabited. The English names of the individual islands were probably given by buccaneers, for whom the group formed a convenient retreat.The larger members of the group, several of which attain an elevation
elevation
Salvador , and Charles or Santa Maria. The total land area is estimated at about 2870 sq. m. (about that of the West Riding of Yorkshire). The extraordinary number of craters, a few of which are reported still to be active, gives evidence that the archipelago is the result of volcanic action. The number of 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 settlement on Chatham with1 Apparently derived from the Chinese Kau-liang-Kiang, i.e. Kau- Bang
.p.9, 17 ).some goo inhabitants living in low thatched or iron-roofed huts, under the supervision of a police commissioner and other officials of Ecuador, by which country the group was annexed in 1832, when General Villamil founded Floreana on Charles Island, naming it in honour of Juan Jose Flores, president of Ecuador. A governor has been appointed since 1885, some importance being foreseen for the islands in connexion with the cutting of the Panama canal, as the group lies on the route to Australia opened up by that scheme . Charles Island, the most valuable of the group, is cultivated by a small colony. On many of the islets numerous tropical fruits are found growing wild, but they are no doubt escapes from cultivation, just as the large herds of wild cattle, horses, donkeys, pigs, goats and dogs-the last large and fiercewhich 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 place to taller trees and deep green bushes which are covered with orchids and trailing 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 cactus and stunted shrubs, and a most uninviting shore. The contrast between this low zone and the upper zone of rich vegetation (above about Soo ft.) is curiously marked. From July to November the clouds hang low on the mountains, and give moisture to-the upper zone, while the climate of the lower is dry. Rain in the lower zone is scanty, and from May to January does not occur. The porous soil absorbs the moisture, and fresh water is scarce. Though the islands are under the equator , the climate is not intensely hot, as it is tempered by cold currents from the Antarctic sea, which, having followed the coast of Peru as far as Cape Blanco, 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 guano and the orchilla moss found on them and exported to Europe. Except on Charles Island, where settlement has existed longest, little or no influence of the presence of man is evident in the group; still, the running wild of dogs and cats, and, as regards the vegetation, especially goats, must in a comparatively short 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 chief
Since 186o several visits have been paid to the group by scientific investigatorsby Dr Habel in 1868; Messrs Baur and Adams, and the naturalists of the " Albatross," between 1888 and 1891; and in 18971898 by Mr Charles Harris, whose journey was specially under-taken at the instance of the Hon. Walter Rothschild. Very complete collections have therefore, as a result of these expeditions, been brought together; but their examination does not materially change the facts upon which the conclusions arrived at by Darwin, from the evidence of the birds and plants, were based; though he " no doubt would have paid more attention to [the evidence afforded by Land-tortoisesi, if he had been in possession of facts with which we are acquainted now " (Gunther). His conclusions were that the group " has never been nearer the mainland than it is now, nor have its members been at any time closer together "; and that the character of the flora and fauna is the result of species straggling over from America, at long intervals of time, to the different islets, where in their isolation they have gradually varied in different degrees and ways from their ancestors. Equally indecisive is the further exploration as to evidence for the 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 mass into a number of islets, wherein the separated species became differentiated during their isolation. The presence of these giant reptiles on the group is the chief
recent
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