The Voyage Of The Beagle By Charles Darwin





































































 -   The
Flora of the Galapagos Archipelago is the subject of a separate
memoir by him, in the 'Linnean Transactions.' - Page 2
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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 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 9, 1845

[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.

THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE

CHAPTER I

ST. JAGO - CAPE DE VERD ISLANDS

Porto Praya - Ribeira Grande - Atmospheric Dust with Infusoria - Habits of a Sea-slug and Cuttle-fish - 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 Infusoria - Causes of discoloured Sea.

AFTER having been twice driven back by heavy southwestern gales, Her Majesty's ship Beagle, a ten-gun brig, under the command of Captain Fitz Roy, R. N., sailed from Devonport on the 27th of December, 1831. The object of the expedition was to complete the survey of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, commenced under Captain King in 1826 to 1830, - to survey the shores of Chile, Peru, and of some islands in the Pacific - and to carry a chain of chronometrical measurements round the World. On the 6th of January we reached Teneriffe, but were prevented landing, by fears of our bringing the cholera: the next morning we saw the sun rise behind the rugged outline of the Grand Canary island, and suddenly illuminate the Peak of Teneriffe, whilst the lower parts were veiled in fleecy clouds. This was the first of many delightful days never to be forgotten. On the 16th of January, 1832, we anchored at Porto Praya, in St. Jago, the chief island of the Cape de Verd archipelago.

The neighbourhood of Porto Praya, viewed from the sea, wears a desolate aspect. The volcanic fires of a past age, and the scorching heat of a tropical sun, have in most places rendered the soil unfit for vegetation. The country rises in successive steps of table-land, interspersed with some truncate conical hills, and the horizon is bounded by an irregular chain of more lofty mountains. The scene, as beheld through the hazy atmosphere of this climate, is one of great interest; if, indeed, a person, fresh from sea, and who has just walked, for the first time, in a grove of cocoa-nut trees, can be a judge of anything but his own happiness.

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