exploration as to evidence for the opinion held by other naturalists
that the endemic species of the different islands have resulted from
subsidences, through volcanic action, which have reduced one large
island mass into a number of islets, wherein the separated species
became differentiated during their isolation. The presence of these
giant reptiles on the group is the chief fact on which a former
land connexion with the continent of America may be sustained.
“Nearly all authorities agree that it is not probable that they have
crossed the wide sea between the Galapagos Islands and the American
continent, although, while they are helpless, and quite unable to
swim, they can float on the water. If their ancestors had been
carried out to sea once or twice by a flood and safely drifted as far as
the Galapagos Islands” (Wallace), “they must have been numerous
on the continent” (Rothschild and Hartert). No remains, and of
course no living species, of these tortoises are known to exist or have
existed on the mainland. Rothschild and Hartert think “it is
more natural to assume the disappearance of a great stock of animals,
the remains of which have survived, ... than to assume the disappearance
in comparatively recent times (i.e. in the Eocene period
or later) of enormous land masses.” Past elevations of land, however
(and doubtless equally great subsidences) have taken place in
South America since the Eocene, and the conclusion that extensive
areas of land have subsided in the Indian Ocean has long been based
on a somewhat similar distribution of giant tortoises in the Mascarene
region.
Authorities.—Darwin, Voyage of the “Beagle”; O. Salvin, “On the Avifauna of the Galapagos Archipelago,” Trans. Zool. Soc. part ix. (1876); Sclater and Salvin, “Characters of New Species collected by Dr Habel in the Galapagos Islands,” Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1870, pp. 322–327; A. R. Wallace, Geographical Distribution of Animals (New York, 1876); Theodor Wolf, Ein Besuch der Galapagos Inseln (Heidelberg, 1879); and paper in Geographical Journal, vi. 560 (1895); W. L. and P. L. Sclater, The Geography of Mammals (London, 1899); Ridgway, “Birds of the Galapagos Archipelago,” Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. vol. xix. pp. 459–670 (1897); Baur, “New Observations on the Origin of the Galapagos Islands,” Amer. Nat. (1897), pp. 661–680, 864–896; A. Agassiz, “The Galapagos Islands,” Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. vol. xxiii. pp. 56-75; A. Günther, Proc. Linn. Soc. (London (President’s Address), October 1898), pp. 14-29 (with bibliography from 1875 to 1898 on gigantic land-tortoises); Rothschild and Hartert, “Review of the Ornithology of the Galapagos Islands,” Novitates zoologicae, vi. pp. 85-205; B. L. Robinson, “Flora of the Galapagos Islands,” Proc. Amer. Acad. of Arts and Sciences, xxxviii. (1902).
GALASHIELS, a municipal and police burgh of Selkirkshire,
Scotland. Pop. (1891) 17,367; (1901) 13,615. It is situated on
Gala Water, within a short distance of its junction with the
Tweed, 33½ m. S.S.E. of Edinburgh by the North British railway.
The town stretches for more than 2 m. along both banks of the
river, the mills and factories occupying the valley by the stream,
the villas and better-class houses the high-lying ground on either
side. The principal structures include the municipal buildings,
corn exchange, library, public hall, and the market cross. The
town is under the control of a provost, bailies and council, and,
along with Hawick and Selkirk, forms the Hawick (or Border)
group of parliamentary burghs. The woollen manufactures,
dating from the close of the 16th century, are the most
important in Scotland, though now mainly confined to the weaving
of tweeds. Other leading industries are hosiery, tanning
(with the largest yards in Scotland), dyeing, iron and brass founding,
engineering and boot-making. Originally a village built for
the accommodation of pilgrims to Melrose Abbey (4 m. E. by S.),
it became, early in the 15th century, an occasional residence of the
Douglases, who were then keepers of Ettrick Forest, and whose
peel-tower was not demolished till 1814. Galashiels was created
into a burgh of barony in 1599. The Catrail or Picts’ Work
begins near the town and passes immediately to the west. Clovenfords,
3½ m. W., is noted for the Tweed vineries, which are heated
by 5 m. of water-pipes, and supply the London market throughout
the winter. Two miles farther W. by S. is Ashestiel, where Sir
Walter Scott resided from 1804 to 1812, where he wrote his most
famous poems and began Waverley, and which he left for Abbotsford.
GALATIA. I. In the strict sense (Galatia Proper, Roman
Gallograecia) this is the name applied by Greek-speaking peoples
to a large inland district of Asia Minor since its occupation by
Gaulish tribes in the 3rd century B.C. Bounded on the N. by
Bithynia and Paphlagonia, W. by Phrygia, S. by Lycaonia and
Cappadocia, E. by Pontus, it included the greater part of the
modern vilayet of Angora, stretching from Pessinus eastwards to
Tavium and from the Paphlagonian hills N. of Ancyra southwards
to the N. end of the salt lake Tatta (but probably including the
plains W. of the lake during the greater part of its history),—a
rough oblong about 200 m. long and 100 (to 130) broad.
Galatia is part of the great central plateau of Asia Minor, here ranging from 2000 to 3000 ft. above sea-level, and falls geographically into two parts separated by the Halys (Kizil Irmak),—a small eastern district lying chiefly in the basin of the Delije Irmak, the principal affluent of the Halys, and a large western region drained almost entirely by the Sangarius (Sakaria) and its tributaries. On the N. side Galatia consists of a series of plains with fairly fertile soil, lying between bare hills. But the greater part is a dreary stretch of barren, undulating uplands, intersected by tiny streams and passing gradually into the vast level waste of treeless (anc. Axylon) plain that runs S. to Lycaonia; these uplands are little cultivated and only afford extensive pasturage for large flocks of sheep and goats. Cities are few and far apart, and the climate is one of extremes of heat and cold. The general condition and aspect of the country was much the same in ancient as in modern times.
The Gaulish invaders appeared in Asia Minor in 278–277 B.C. They numbered 20,000, of which only one-half were fighting men, the rest being doubtless women and children; and not long after their arrival we find them divided into three tribes, Trocmi, Tolistobogii and Tectosages, each of which claimed a separate sphere of operations. They had split off from the army which invaded Greece under Brennus in 279 B.C., and, marching into Thrace under Leonnorius and Lutarius, crossed over to Asia at the invitation of Nicomedes I. of Bithynia, who required help in his struggle against his brother. For about 46 years they were the scourge of the western half of Asia Minor, ravaging the country, as allies of one or other of the warring princes, without any serious check, until Attalus I., king of Pergamum (241-197), inflicted several severe defeats upon them, and about 232 B.C. forced them to settle permanently in the region to which they gave their name. Probably they already occupied parts of Galatia, but definite limits were now fixed and their right to the district was formally recognized. The tribes were settled where they afterwards remained, the Tectosages round Ancyra, the Tolistobogii round Pessinus, and the Trocmi round Tavium. The constitution of the Galatian state is described by Strabo: conformably to Gaulish custom, each tribe was divided into four cantons (Gr. τετραρχίαι), each governed by a chief (“tetrarch”) of its own with a judge under him, whose powers were unlimited except in cases of murder, which were tried before a council of 300 drawn from the twelve cantons and meeting at a holy place called Drynemeton. But the power of the Gauls was not yet broken. They proved a formidable foe to the Romans in their wars with Antiochus, and after Attalus’ death their raids into W. Asia Minor forced Rome in 189 B.C. to send an expedition against them under Cn. Manlius Vulso, who taught them a severe lesson. Henceforward their military power declined and they fell at times under Pontic ascendancy, from which they were finally freed by the Mithradatic wars, in which they heartily supported Rome. In the settlement of 64 B.C. Galatia became a client-state of the empire, the old constitution disappeared, and three chiefs (wrongly styled “tetrarchs”) were appointed, one for each tribe. But this arrangement soon gave way before the ambition of one of these tetrarchs, Deiotarus, the contemporary of Cicero and Caesar, who made himself master of the other two tetrarchies and was finally recognized by the Romans as king of Galatia. On the death of the third king Amyntas in 25 B.C., Galatia was incorporated by Augustus in the Roman empire, and few of the provinces were more enthusiastically loyal.
The population of Galatia was not entirely Gallic. Before the arrival of the Gauls, western Galatia up to the Halys was inhabited by Phrygians, and eastern Galatia by Cappadocians and other native races. This native population remained, and constituted the majority of the inhabitants of the rural parts and almost the sole inhabitants of the towns. They were left in possession of two-thirds of the land (cf. Caesar, B.G. i. 31) on condition of paying part of the produce to their new lords, who
