Neptune's Needle

Pacific archipelago and prov. (area; 3,029 sq miles; 1990 pop. 9,785) belonging to Ecuador, c.650 miles W of Ecuador, on the equator. They were discovered in 1535 by the Span. bishop of Panama, Tomas de Berlanga, originally known as The Encantadas, the archipelago was later named for the gigantic (up to 500 lb.) land tortoises, which are now facing extinction. Ecuador claimed the isls. in 1832. The climate is modified by the cool Humboldt Current. The Galapagos were visited (1835) by Charles Darwin on the famous voyage of the Beagle. He gathered an impressive body of evidence here that was used later in support of his theory of natural selection. Although buccaneers, seeking food, made inroads on the fauna, real depredations did not begin until the arrival in the 19th cent. of the whalers and then the oilers, who killed the tortoises wholesale for food and oil. During World War II the U.S. maintained an air base there for the defense of the Panama Canal.

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Peter Richards