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 · Charles Darwin
CHAPTER XVI
Coast-road to Coquimbo — Great loads carried by the miners — Coquimbo — Earthquake — Step-formed terraces — Absence of recent deposits — Contemporaneousness of the Tertiary formations — Excursion up the valley — Road to Guasco — Deserts — Valley of Copiapó — Rain and Earthquakes — Hydrophobia — The Despoblado — Indian ruins — Probable change of climate — River-bed arched by an earthquake — Cold gales of wind — Noises from a hill — Iquique — Salt alluvium — Nitrate of soda — Lima — Unhealthy country — Ruins of Callao, overthrown by an earthquake — Recent subsidence — Elevated shells on San Lorenzo, their decomposition — Plain with embedded shells and fragments of pottery — Antiquity of the Indian Race. Galapagos Archipelago — The whole group volcanic — Number of craters — Leafless bushes — Colony at Charles Island — James Island — Salt-lake in crater — Natural history of the group — Ornithology, curious finches — Reptiles — Great tortoises, habits of — Marine lizard, feeds on seaweed — Terrestrial lizard, burrowing habits, herbivorous — Importance of reptiles in the Archipelago — Fish, shells, insects — Botany — American type of organisation — Differences in the species or races on different islands — Tameness of the birds — Fear of man an acquired instinct. Pass through the Low Archipelago — Tahiti — Aspect — Vegetation on the mountains — View of Eimeo — Excursion into the interior — Profound ravines — Succession of waterfalls — Number of wild useful plants — Temperance of the inhabitants — Their moral state — Parliament convened — New Zealand — Bay of Islands — Hippahs — Excursion to Waimate — Missionary establishment — English weeds now run wild — Waiomio — Funeral of a New Zealand woman — Sail for Australia.
Sydney — Excursion to Bathurst — Aspect of the woods — Party of natives — Gradual extinction of the aborigines — Infection generated by associated men in health — Blue Mountains — View of the grand gulf-like valleys — Their origin and formation — Bathurst, general civility of the lower orders — State of Society — Van Diemen’s Land — Hobart Town — Aborigines all banished — Mount Wellington — King George’s Sound — Cheerless aspect of the country — Bald Head, calcareous casts of branches of trees — Party of natives — Leave Australia.
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.