A NATURALIST'S VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD
By Charles Darwin
FIRST EDITION...MAY 1860. SECOND EDITION...MAY 1870. THIRD EDITION...FEBRUARY 1872. FOURTH EDITION...JULY 1874. FIFTH EDITION...MARCH 1876. SIXTH EDITION...JANUARY 1879. SEVENTH EDITION...MAY 1882. EIGHTH EDITION...FEBRUARY 1884. NINTH EDITION...AUGUST 1886. TENTH EDITION...JANUARY 1888.
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ELEVENTH EDITION...JANUARY 1890.
REPRINTED...JUNE 1913.
(FRONTISPIECE. H.M.S. BEAGLE IN STRAITS OF MAGELLAN. MT. SARMIENTO IN THE DISTANCE.)
JOURNAL OF RESEARCHES
INTO THE
NATURAL HISTORY AND GEOLOGY
OF THE
COUNTRIES VISITED DURING THE VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD OF H.M.S. 'BEAGLE'
UNDER THE COMMAND OF CAPTAIN FITZ ROY, R.N.
BY CHARLES DARWIN, M.A., F.R.S.
AUTHOR OF 'ORIGIN OF SPECIES,' ETC.
(PLATE 1. H.M.S. BEAGLE UNDER FULL SAIL, VIEW FROM ASTERN.)
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A NEW EDITION
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY R.T. PRITCHETT OF PLACES VISITED AND OBJECTS DESCRIBED.
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
1913.
TO
CHARLES LYELL, ESQ., F.R.S.,
This second edition is dedicated with grateful pleasure, as an acknowledgment that the chief part of whatever scientific merit this journal and the other works of the author may possess, has been derived from studying the well-known and admirable
PRINCIPLES OF GEOLOGY.
PREFATORY NOTICE TO THE ILLUSTRATED EDITION.
This work was described, on its first appearance, by a writer in
the "Quarterly Review" as "One of the most interesting narratives of voyaging that it has fallen to our lot to take up, and one which must always occupy a distinguished place in the history of
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scientific navigation."
This prophecy has been amply verified by experience; the extraordinary minuteness and accuracy of Mr. Darwin's observations, combined with the charm and simplicity of his descriptions, have ensured the popularity of this book with all classes of
readers--and that popularity has even increased in recent years. No attempt, however, has hitherto been made to produce an illustrated edition of this valuable work: numberless places and objects are mentioned and described, but the difficulty of obtaining authentic and original representations of them drawn for the purpose has never been overcome until now.
Most of the views given in this work are from sketches made on the spot by Mr. Pritchett, with Mr. Darwin's book by his side. Some
few of the others are taken from engravings which Mr. Darwin had himself selected for their interest as illustrating his voyage, and which have been kindly lent by his son.
Mr. Pritchett's name is well known in connection with the voyages of the "Sunbeam" and "Wanderer," and it is believed that the illustrations, which have been chosen and verified with the utmost care and pains, will greatly add to the value and interest of the "VOYAGE OF A NATURALIST."
JOHN MURRAY. December 1889.
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AUTHOR'S PREFACE.
I have stated in the preface to the first Edition of this work, and in the "Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle," that it was in consequence of a wish expressed by Captain Fitz Roy, of having some scientific person on board, accompanied by an offer from him of
giving up part of his own accommodations, that I volunteered my services, which received, through the kindness of the hydrographer, Captain Beaufort, the sanction of the Lords of the Admiralty. As I feel that the opportunities which I enjoyed of studying the Natural History of the different countries we visited have been wholly due to Captain Fitz Roy, I hope I may here be permitted to repeat my expression of gratitude to him; and to add that, during the five
years we were together, I received from him the most cordial friendship and steady assistance. Both to Captain Fitz Roy and to all the Officers of the "Beagle" I shall ever feel most thankful
for the undeviating kindness with which I was treated during our long voyage. (Preface/1. I must take this opportunity of returning my sincere thanks to Mr. Bynoe, the surgeon of the "Beagle," for his very kind attention to me when I was ill at Valparaiso.)
This volume contains, in the form of a Journal, a history of our voyage, and a sketch of those observations in Natural History and Geology, which I think will possess some interest for the general reader. I have in this edition largely condensed and corrected some parts, and have added a little to others, in order to render the volume more fitted for popular reading; but I trust that
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naturalists will remember that they must refer for details to the larger publications which comprise the scientific results of the Expedition. The "Zoology of the Voyage of the 'Beagle'" includes an account of the Fossil Mammalia, by Professor Owen; of the Living
Mammalia, by Mr. Waterhouse; of the Birds, by Mr. Gould; of the
Fish, by the Reverend L. Jenyns; and of the Reptiles, by Mr. Bell.
I have appended to the descriptions of each species an account of its habits and range. These works, which I owe to the high talents and disinterested zeal of the above distinguished authors, could not have been undertaken had it not been for the liberality of the
Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, who, through the representation of the Right Honourable the Chancellor of the Exchequer, have been pleased to grant a sum of one thousand pounds towards defraying part of the expenses of publication.
I have myself published separate volumes on the "Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs"; on the "Volcanic Islands visited during the Voyage of the 'Beagle'"; and on the "Geology of South America." The sixth volume of the "Geological Transactions" contains two papers of mine on the Erratic Boulders and Volcanic
Phenomena of South America. Messrs. Waterhouse, Walker, Newman, and White, have published several able papers on the Insects which were collected, and I trust that many others will hereafter follow. The
plants from the southern parts of America will be given by Dr. J. Hooker, in his great work on the Botany of the Southern Hemisphere. The Flora of the Galapagos Archipelago is the subject of a separate memoir by him, in the "Linnean Transactions." The Reverend Professor Henslow has published a list of the plants collected by
me at the Keeling Islands; and the Reverend J.M. Berkeley has
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described my cryptogamic plants.
I shall have the pleasure of acknowledging the great assistance which I have received from several other naturalists in the course
of this and my other works; but I must be here allowed to return my
most sincere thanks to the Reverend Professor Henslow, who, when I was an undergraduate at Cambridge, was one chief means of giving me a taste for Natural History,--who, during my absence, took charge
of the collections I sent home, and by his correspondence directed my endeavours,--and who, since my return, has constantly rendered me every assistance which the kindest friend could offer.
DOWN, BROMLEY, KENT, June 1845.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Porto Praya--Ribeira Grande--Atmospheric Dust with Infusoria
--Habits of a Sea-slug and Cuttlefish--St. Paul's Rocks, non-volcanic--Singular Incrustations--Insects the first Colonists of Islands--Fernando Noronha--Bahia--Burnished
Rocks--Habits of a Diodon--Pelagic Confervae and