  We examine the question of the origin of the Galactic cosmic-rays (GCRs) in
the light of the data available at the highest energy end of the spectrum. We
argue that the data of the Pierre Auger Observatory and of the KASCADE-Grande
experiment suggest that the transition between the Galactic and the
extragalactic components takes place at the energy of the ankle in the
all-particle cosmic-ray spectrum, and at an energy of the order of $10^{17}$ eV
for protons. Such a high energy for Galactic protons appears difficult to
reconcile with the general view that GCRs are accelerated by the standard
diffusive shock acceleration process at the forward shock of individual
supernova remnants (SNRs). We also review various difficulties of the standard
SNR-GCR connection, related to the evolution of the light element abundances
and to significant isotopic anomalies. We point out that most of the power
injected by the supernovae in the Galaxy is actually released inside
superbubbles, which may thus play an important role in the origin of
cosmic-rays, and could solve some persistent problems of the standard SNR-GCR
scenario in a rather natural way.
