"Daily it is forced home on the mind of the geologist, that nothing, not even the wind that blows, is so unstable as the level of the crust of this earth."
On the Galapagos:
“The productions of the Galapagos Archipelago, from five to six hundred miles from America, are still of the American type. ..What is most singular, not only are the plants, etc., to a great extent peculiar to these islands, but each [island] for the most part has its own kinds, though they are within sight of each other.”
H. D. Thoreau, Journal, June 15, 1851
Each island has its own kinds. . . . See August 21, 1851 ("I have now found all the hawkweeds. Singular these genera of plants, plants manifestly related yet distinct. They suggest a history to nature, a natural history in a new sense.”) And (after reading the Origin of the Species) March 22, 1861 ("Every organism, whether animal or vegetable, is contending for the possession of the planet. . . . And each species prevails as much as it does, because of the ample preparations it has made for the contest,- it has secured a myriad chances.”); see also June 15, 1852 ("Flowers were made to be seen, not overlooked. Their bright colors imply eyes, spectators.")
From the Voyage of the Beagle chapter 17 :
....by far the most remarkable feature in the natural history of this archipelago; it is, that the different islands to a considerable extent are inhabited by a different set of beings. . . .I never dreamed that islands, about 50 or 60 miles apart, and most of them in sight of each other, formed of precisely the same rocks, placed under a quite similar climate, rising to a nearly equal height, would have been differently tenanted; but we shall soon see that this is the case.
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