n the interesting phenomena they present. Taking first two North
Atlantic groups--the Azores and Bermuda--it is shown how important an agent
in the dispersal of most animals and plants is a stormy atmosphere.
Although 900 and 700 miles respectively from the nearest continents, their
productions are very largely identical with those of Europe and America;
and, what is more important, fresh arrivals of birds, insects, and plants,
are now taking place almost annually. These islands afford, therefore, test
examples of the great dispersive powers of certain groups of organisms, and
thus serve as a basis on which to found our explanations of many anomalies
of distribution. Passing {540} on to the Galapagos we have a group less
distant from a continent and of larger area, yet, owing to special
conditions, of which the comparatively stormless equatorial atmosphere is
the most important, exhibiting far more speciality in its productions than
the more distant Azores. Still, however, its fauna and flora are as
unmistakably derived from the American continent as those of the Azores are
from the European.

We next take St. Helena and the Sandwich Islands, both wonderfully isolated
in the midst of vast oceans, and no longer exhibiting in their productions
an exclusive affinity to one continent. Here we have to recognise the
results of immense antiquity, and of those changes of geography, of
climate, and in the general distribution of organisms which we know have
occurred in former geological epochs, and whose causes and consequences we
have discussed in the first part of our volume. This concludes our review
of the Oceanic Islands.

Coming now to Continental Islands we consider first those of most recent
origin and offering the simplest phenomena; and begin with the British
Isles as affording the best example of very recent and well known
Continental Islands. Reviewing the interesting past history of Britain, we
show why it is comparatively poor in species and why this poverty is still
greater in Ireland. By a careful examination of its fauna and flora it is
then shown that the British Isles are not so completely identical,
biologically, with the continent as has been supposed. A considerable
amount of speciality is shown to exist, and that this speciality is real
and not apparent is supported by the fact, that small outlying islands,
such as the Isle of Man, the Shetland Isles, Lundy Island, and the Isle of
Wight, all possess certai