Origin of Species Variorum

he placed 100 land-shells, belonging to ten species, in a box pierced with holes, and immersed it for a fortnight in the sea. Out of the hundred shells, twenty-seven recovered. The presence of an operculum seems to have been of importance, as out of twelve specimens of Cyclostoma elegans, which is thus furnished, eleven revived. It is remarkable, seeing how well ... with me the Helix pomatia resisted the salt-water, that not one .. of fifty-four specimens belonging to four species of Helix tried by Aucapitaine, recovered. ↑ It is, however, not at all probable that land-shells have often been thus transported; the feet of birds is a more probable method.

On the Relations of the Inhabitants of Islands to those of the nearest Mainland .

The most striking and important fact for us is the affinity of the species which inhabit islands to those of the nearest mainland, without being actually the same. .. Numerous instances could be given. .. .. .. The Galapagos Archipelago, situated under the equator, lies at the distance of between 500 and 600 miles from the shores of South America. Here almost every product of the land and the water bears the unmistakeable stamp of the American continent. There are twenty-six land-birds, and twenty-one, or, perhaps, twenty-three, of these are ranked as distinct species, and are supposed to have been created here; yet the close affinity of most of these birds to American species in every character, in their habits, gestures, and tones of voice, was manifest. So it is with the other animals, and with a large proportion of the plants, as shown by Dr. Hooker in his admirable ... Flora of this archipelago. The naturalist, looking at the inhabitants of these volcanic islands in