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
MAURITIUS TO ENGLAND
In conclusion it appears to me that nothing can be more improving to a young naturalist than a journey in distant countries. It both sharpens and partly allays that want and craving, which, as Sir J. Herschel remarks, a man experiences although every corporeal sense be fully satisfied. The excitement from the novelty of objects, and the chance of success, stimulate him to increased activity. Moreover, as a number of isolated facts soon become uninteresting, the habit of comparison leads to generalisation. On the other hand, as the traveller stays but a short time in each place, his descriptions must generally consist of mere sketches, instead of detailed observations. Hence arises, as I have found to my cost, a constant tendency to fill up the wide gaps of knowledge by inaccurate and superficial hypotheses. But I have too deeply enjoyed the voyage, not to recommend any naturalist, although he must not expect to be so fortunate in his companions as I have been, to take all chances, and to start, on travels by land if possible, if otherwise, on a long voyage. He may feel assured he will meet with no difficulties or dangers, excepting in rare cases, nearly so bad as he beforehand anticipates. In a moral point of view the effect ought to be to teach him good-humoured patience, freedom from selfishness, the habit of acting for himself, and of making the best of every occurrence. In short, he ought to partake of the characteristic qualities of most sailors. Travelling ought also to teach him distrust; but at the same time he will discover how many truly kind-hearted people there are, with whom he never before had, or ever again will have any further communication, who yet are ready to offer him the most disinterested assistance.
Ascension. Terns and noddies List of Illustrations H.M.S. _Beagle_ in Straits of Magellan. Mt. Sarmiento in the distance. H.M.S. _Beagle_ under full sail, view from astern. H.M.S. _Beagle_: Middle section fore and aft, upper deck, 1832. Fernando Noronha. Incrustation of shelly sand. Diodon Maculatus (Distended and Contracted). Pelagic Confervæ. Catamaran (Bahia). Botofogo Bay, Rio Janeiro. Vampire Bat (Desmodus D’Orbigny). Virgin Forest. Cabbage Palm. Mandioca or Cassava. Rio Janeiro. Darwin’s Papilio Feronia, 1833, now called Ageronia feronia, 1889. Hydrochærus capybara or Water-hog. Recado or Surcingle of Gaucho. Halt at a Pulperia on the Pampas. El Carmen, or Patagones, Rio Negro. Brazilian whips. Brazilian hobbles and spurs. Bringing in a prisoner. Irregular troops. Skinning uji or water serpents. Rhea Darwinii (Avestruz Petise). Landing at Buenos Ayres. Maté pots and bambillio. Giant thistle of pampas. Cynara Cardunculus or Cardoon. Evening camp, Buenos Ayres. Rozario. Parana River. Toxodon Platensis. (Found at Saladillo.) Fossil tooth of horse. (From Bahia Blanca.) Mylodon. Head of Scissor-beak. Rhynchops Nigra, or Scissor-beak. Buenos Ayres bullock-waggons. Fuegians and wigwams. Opuntia Darwinii. Raised beaches, Patagonia. Ladies’ combs, banda oriental. Condor (Sarcorhamphus gryphus). Basaltic Glen, Santa Cruz. Berkeley Sound, Falkland Islands. York Minster (Bearing S. 66° east.) Cape Horn. Cape Horn (another view). Bad weather, Magellan Straits. Fuegian basket and bone weapons. False Horn, Cape Horn. Wollaston Island, Tierra del Fuego. Patagonians from Cape Gregory. Port Famine, Magellan.
ABBOTT, Mr., on spiders, 36 Aborigines banished from Van Diemen’s Land, 475 of Australia, 430 to 458 Abrolhos Islands, 9, 14 Absence of trees in Pampas, 48 Aconcagua, volcano of, 269, 294, 312 Actinia, stinging species, 494 Africa, Southern part desert, yet supports large animals, 89 Ageronia feronia, 39 Agouti, habits of, 72 Ague common in Peru, 389 Albemarle Island, 401, 420 Allan, Dr., on Diodon, 14 on Holuthuriæ, 494 Alluvium, saliferous, in Peru, 367 stratified, in Andes, 333 Amblyrhynchus, 401, 411 Anas, species of, 210 Animalculæ. _See_ Infusoria Antarctic islands, 263 Antipodes, 444 Ants at Keeling Island, 485 in Brazil, 36 Antuco volcano, 311 Apires, or miners 364 Aplysia, 6, 493 Apple-trees, 318 Aptenodytes demersa, 209 Araucanian Indians, 66 Areas of alternate movements in the Pacific and Indian oceans, 480 Armadilloes, habits of, 110 fossil animals allied to, 137, 164 Arqueros mines, 369 Arrow-heads, ancient, 109, 381 Ascension, 522, 538 Aspalax, blindness of, 53 Athene cunicularia, 73, 132 Atolls, 490, 495 Attagis, 98 Atwater, Mr., on the prairies, 124 Audubon, M., on smelling-power of carrion-hawks, 195 Australia, 459 Australian barrier, 499 group of weapons, 480 Ava (Macropiper methysticum), 428, 436 Azara on spiders, 39 on rain in La Plata, 49 on habits of carrion-hawks, 58 on range of carrion-hawks, 60 on a thunder-storm, 65 on ostrich-eggs, 95 on bows and arrows, 110 on new plants springing up, 125 on great droughts, 142 on hydrophobia, 378 BACHMAN, Mr., on carrion-hawks, 195 Bahia Blanca, 50, 70, 77 to 110 fossil tooth of horse from, 138 Bahia, Brazil, 11 scenery of, 526 Bajada, 136 Balbi on coral reefs, 499 Bald Head, Australia, 479 Ballenar, Chile, 373 Banda Oriental, 48, 152, 158, 186 Banks’s Hill, 221 Barking-bird, 307 Barrier-reef, Bolabola, 498 reefs, sections of, 500 Basaltic platform of Santa Cruz, 182 Bathurst, Australia, 470 Batrachian reptiles, 101 Bats, vampire, 22, 23 Bay of Islands, New Zealand, 444 Beads, hill of, 158 Beagle Channel, Tierra del Fuego, 230 Beech-trees, 251, 292 Beetles in brackish water, 22 on a fungus, 32 alive in sea, 168 at St. Julian, 180 dung-feeders, 520, 521 Behring’s Straits, fossils of, 140 Bell of Quillota, 270 Benchuca, 352 Berkeley Sound, 199, 214 Rev.
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