The Galapagos Archipelago

Abstract

THE Galapagos Islands are situated directly on the equator, about 500 miles distant from Ecuador, which claims their sovereignty. They are volcanic islands, arising precipitously from a bank at 2000 metres, and their topographical connexion is with Costa Rica and Panama, 650 miles distant, with the tiny Cocos island between. They number 13 larger islands with numerous coastal islets, the largest island (Albemarle) more than 70 miles long, and they were formerly described as having 2000 craters. They are all volcanic, and every few years there are outbursts in one or other of them. Unfortunately they have no water, except what accumulates in pools in a short rainy season, so that the vegetation is relatively scant, except in selected spots, without that accumulation of broken-down rock and plant remains, which forms the rich soil of most tropical islands. Their shores are rocky in the extreme with cliffs and great boulders, and small inlets here and there, the sort of shore one is accustomed to expect on oceanic islands formed by submarine volcanic activity after the ash is washed away and the lava laid bare. Their surface is jagged rock with bushes and cacti in the crevices, so inexpressibly uncomfortable and thirsty that the interior of the larger islands would seem never to have been explored.