GALAPAGOS GALATIANS 557 from 200 to 300 inhabitants. At the time of the Hassler's visit the whole settlement had dwindled down to a so-called governor and about a dozen peons, who were very des- titute, owing to the abandonment of the isl- ands as a place of call for whalers and other vessels, which can no longer procure the sup- plies of turtles for which the islands were once famous. Besides Charles island, the only other inhabited island is Chatham. The zoology and botany of these islands possess a peculiar interest, first revealed by the researches of Darwin. Not only is there a large number of animal and vegetable forms not found in any other part of the world, but some of them are confined to single islands of the group, and, what is still more extraordinary, strongly marked varieties, if not different species, of the same genus replace one another in islands not far apart. Considering the evidently re- cent formation of the islands, the problem of the origin of organic life presents itself here in a most striking manner. Both the fauna and the flora have a most undoubted western American character. Of mammalia there are no indige- nous terrestrial representatives; a rat and a mouse found on some of the islands were prob- ably introduced. Seals, however, are very plen- tiful. Cattle, pigs, and goats have been intro- duced on Charles and Chatham islands. About 26 species of birds are known to inhabit this group. Most of the water birds and a few of the land birds are American. The extreme tameness of these birds has always been a won- der to visitors. The reptiles are of great inte- rest. It has been mentioned that the islands were named from the land tortoises, testudo ni- gra, formerly so abundant that single ships are said to have taken away as many as 700. They were found weighing several hundred pounds, but at present they have greatly diminished in number, and large ones are seldom seen. Of lizards there are three or four species, one or two small and belonging to a South American genus, and two large ones belonging to the genus amblyrhynchus, confined altogether to these islands. Of these, one (A. cristatus) is the only marine saurian of our epoch. It in- habits the shores of all the islands, swimming out to sea and feeding on seaweed. The other species (A. Demarlii) is terrestrial and her- bivorous, inhabiting burrows or crevices in the lava; it is confined to the central islands of the group. Both attain a size of 3 or 4 ft., but the terrestrial is somewhat the smaller. A small snake of a South American species is abundant. Sea turtles are also very numerous. The fishes are mostly of South American types, but are not yet sufficiently known. Insects are scarce and small. One half of the shells, according to Mr. Cuming, are peculiar to the islands, the other half partly South American, partly common to the central parts of the Pa- sific. Coral reefs do not exist here ; but pieces )f coral of two species, found also in Panama, were picked up on the beaches by the Hassler expedition. The scanty vegetation is so small- leaved in general in the lower parts as to present scarcely any appearance of verdure. Two large cactuses, a cereus and an opuntia, are arborescent and give a strange character to the landscape. Near the tops of the mountains the vegetation is more luxuriant, and grasses and ferns abound, but there are none of the palms or tree ferns, so characteristic of the tropics. GALASHIELS, a burgh of Scotland, partly in Selkirkshire and partly in Roxburghshire, on both sides of the Gala, 27 m. S. E. of Edinburgh ; pop. in 1871, 6,433 (in 1801, 1,214, and in 1831, 2,209). The place is of considerable antiquity, but the wool manufactures, to which it owes its recent progress, have only since the begin- ning of the present century been carried on to any great extent. The town is well built, has six principal streets, and is lighted with gas. GALATA. See CONSTANTINOPLE. GALATEA. See ACTS. GALATIA, an ancient province of Asia Minor, bounded N. by Bithynia and Paphlagonia, E. by Pontus, S. by Cappadocia and Lycaonia, and W. by Phrygia, of which it was once a part. The Halys traversed it from S. to N. It was called Gallo-Graecia or Galatia from the Gauls, who conquered this region and settled in it in the latter part of the 3d century B. C. They were divided into three great tribes and twelve tetrar.chies, each under a separate chief. They aided Antiochus the Great against the Romans, but the latter against Mithridates, for which one of their tetrarchs, Deiotarus, was made king, receiving also Pontus and Armenia Minor. He fought with Pompey against Caasar at Phar- salia, was accused of an attempt on the life of Caesar and defended by Cicero, and at the close of his life sided with Brutus and Cassius. On the death of his successor, King Amyntas, the country was annexed to the Roman empire, 25 B. C. Its inhabitants, though intermixed with Greeks, retained their native Gallic language at the time of St. Jerome, and, according to him, were in the 4th century the only people in Asia Minor who could not speak Greek. Roman writers call the inhabitants Galli. Theodosius I. divided the province into Galatia Prima and Galatia Secunda. Famous cities of Galatia were Ancyra, now Angora, Pessinus, and Gor- dium, where Alexander the Great cut the knot. Galatia forms now part of the Turkish vilayet of Angora. The Galatians were less effeminate and less debased by superstition than the natives of Phrygia, and therefore more ready to receive the gospel. Paul first preached Christianity and organized churches in Galatia. He was there once with Silas and Timothy (Acts xvi. 6), about A. D. 53, and again several years later, on his return from Corinth (Acts xviii. 23). GALATIANS, Epistle to the, a letter addressed by the apostle Paul to the churches of Galatia, and forming one of the canonical books of the New Testament. It is one of those Pauline
