CONTENTS
A NATURALIST's VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD
The Voyage of the Beagle - Charles Darwin

Title page  Chapters: 1 - Journal | 2 - Rio de Janeiro | 3 - Maldonado | 4 - Rio Negro to Bahia Blanca | 5 - Bahia Blanca | 6 - Bahia Blanca to Buenos Ayres | 7 - Buenos Ayres to Santa Fe | 8 - Banda Oriental and Patagonia | 9 - Santa Cruz, Patagonia and the Falkland Islands | 10 - Tierra del Fuego | 11 - Strait of Magellan, Climate of the Southern Coast | 12 - Central Chile | 13 - Chiloe and Chonos Islands | 14 - Chiloe and Concepcion: Great Earthquake | 15 - Passage of the Cordillera | 16 - Northern Chile and Peru | 17 - Galapagos Archipelago | 18 - Tahiti and New Zealand | 19 - Australia | 20 - Keeling Island: Coral Formations | 21 - Mauritius to England
contents  |  plates  |  Index

Chapter I

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 Conferv and Infusoria - Causes of discoloured Sea.

Chapter II

Rio de Janeiro - Excursion north of Cape Frio - Great Evaporation - Slavery - Botofogo Bay - Terrestrial Planariae - Clouds on the Corcovado - Heavy Rain - Musical Frogs - Phosphorescent insects - Elater, springing powers of - Blue Haze - Noise made by a Butterfly - Entomology - Ants - Wasp killing a Spider - Parasitical Spider - Artifices of an Epeira - Gregarious Spider - Spider with an unsymmetrical web.

Chapter III

Monte Video - Maldonado - Excursion to R. Polanco - Lazo and Bolas - Partridges - Absence of trees - Deer - Capybara, or River Hog - Tucutuco - Molothrus, cuckoo-like habits - Tyrant-flycatcher - Mocking-bird - Carrion Hawks - Tubes formed by lightning - House struck.

Chapter IV

Rio Negro - Estancias attacked by the Indians - Salt-Lakes - Flamingoes - R. Negro to R. Colorado - Sacred Tree - Patagonian Hare - Indian Families - General Rosas - Proceed to Bahia Blanca - Sand Dunes - Negro Lieutenant - Bahia Blanca - Saline incrustations - Punta Alta - Zorillo.

Chapter V

Bahia Blanca - Geology - Numerous gigantic extinct Quadrupeds - Recent Extinction - Longevity of Species - Large Animals do not require a luxuriant vegetation - Southern Africa - Siberian Fossils - Two Species of Ostrich - Habits of Oven-bird - Armadilloes - Venomous Snake, Toad, Lizard - Hybernation of Animals - Habits of Sea-Pen - Indian Wars and Massacres - Arrowhead - Antiquarian Relic.

Chapter VI

Set out for Buenos Ayres - Rio Sauce - Sierra Ventana - Third Posta - Driving Horses - Bolas - Partridges and Foxes - Features of the country - Long-legged Plover - Teru-tero - Hail-storm - Natural enclosures in the Sierra Tapalguen - Flesh of Puma - Meat Diet - Guardia del Monte - Effects of cattle on the Vegetation - Cardoon - Buenos Ayres - Corral where cattle are slaughtered.

Chapter VII

Excursion to St. Fe- Thistle Beds - Habits of the Bizcacha - Little Owl - Saline streams - Level plains - Mastodon - St. Fe- Change in landscape - Geology - Tooth of extinct Horse - Relation of the Fossil and recent Quadrupeds of North and South America - Effects of a great drought - Parana - Habits of the Jaguar - Scissor-beak - Kingfisher, Parrot, and Scissor-tail - Revolution - Buenos Ayres - State of Government.

Chapter VIII

Excursion to Colonia del Sacramiento - Value of an Estancia - Cattle, how counted - Singular breed of Oxen - Perforated pebbles - Shepherd-dogs - Horses broken-in, Gauchos riding - Character of Inhabitants - Rio Plata - Flocks of Butterflies - Aeronaut Spiders - Phosphorescence of the Sea - Port Desire - Guanaco - Port St. Julian - Geology of Patagonia - Fossil gigantic Animal - Types of Organisation constant - Change in the Zoology of America - Causes of Extinction.

Chapter IX

Santa Cruz - Expedition up the River - Indians - Immense streams of basaltic lava - Fragments not transported by the river - Excavation of the valley - Condor, habits of - Cordillera - Erratic boulders of great size - Indian relics - Return to the ship - Falkland Islands - Wild horses, cattle, rabbits - Wolf-like fox - Fire made of bones - Manner of hunting wild cattle - Geology - Streams of stones - Scenes of violence - Penguin - Geese - Eggs of Doris - Compound animals.

Chapter X

Tierra del Fuego, first arrival - Good Success Bay - An account of the Fuegians on board - Interview with the savages - Scenery of the forests - Cape Horn - Wigwam Cove - Miserable condition of the savages - Famines - Cannibals - Matricide - Religious feelings - Great Gale - Beagle Channel - Ponsonby Sound - Build wigwams and settle the Fuegians - Bifurcation of the Beagle Channel - Glaciers - Return to the Ship - Second visit in the Ship to the Settlement - Equality of condition amongst the natives.

Chapter XI

Strait of Magellan - Port Famine - Ascent of Mount Tarn - Forests - Edible fungus - Zoology - Great Seaweed - Leave Tierra del Fuego - Climate - Fruit-trees and productions of the southern coasts - Height of snow-line on the Cordillera - Descent of glaciers to the sea - Icebergs formed - Transportal of boulders - Climate and productions of the Antarctic Islands - Preservation of frozen carcasses - Recapitulation.

Chapter XII

Valparaiso - Excursion to the foot of the Andes - Structure of the land - Ascend the Bell of Quillota - Shattered masses of greenstone - Immense valleys - Mines - State of miners - Santiago - Hot-baths of Cauquenes - Gold-mines - Grinding-mills - Perforated stones - Habits of the Puma - El Turco and Tapacolo - Humming-birds.

Chapter XIII

Chiloe - General aspect - Boat excursion - Native Indians - Castro - Tame fox - Ascend San Pedro - Chonos Archipelago - Peninsula of Tres Montes - Granitic range - Boat-wrecked sailors - Low's Harbour - Wild potato - Formation of peat - Myopotamus, otter and mice - Cheucau and Barking-bird - Opetiorhynchus - Singular character of ornithology - Petrels.

Chapter XIV

San Carlos, Chiloe - Osorno in eruption, contemporaneously with Aconcagua and Coseguina - Ride to Cucao - Impenetrable forests - Valdivia - Indians - Earthquake - Concepcion - Great earthquake - Rocks fissured - Appearance of the former towns - The sea black and boiling - Direction of the vibrations - Stones twisted round - Great Wave - Permanent Elevation of the land - Area of volcanic phenomena - The connection between the elevatory and eruptive forces - Cause of earthquakes - Slow elevation of mountain-chains.

Chapter XV

Valparaiso - Portillo Pass - Sagacity of mules - Mountain-torrents - Mines, how discovered - Proofs of the gradual elevation of the Cordillera - Effect of snow on rocks - Geological structure of the two main ranges, their distinct origin and upheaval - Great subsidence - Red snow - Winds - Pinnacles of snow - Dry and clear atmosphere - Electricity - Pampas - Zoology of the opposite sides of the Andes - Locusts - Great Bugs - Mendoza - Uspallata Pass - Silicified trees buried as they grew - Incas Bridge - Badness of the passes exaggerated - Cumbre - Casuchas - Valparaiso.

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 Copiapo- 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.

Chapter XVII

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.

Chapter XVIII

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.

Chapter XIX

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.

Chapter XX

Keeling Island - Singular appearance - Scanty Flora - Transport of seeds - Birds and insects - Ebbing and flowing springs - Fields of dead coral - Stones transported in the roots of trees - Great crab - Stinging corals - Coral-eating fish - Coral formations - Lagoon islands or atolls - Depth at which reef-building corals can live - Vast areas interspersed with low coral islands - Subsidence of their foundations - Barrier-reefs - Fringing-reefs - Conversion of fringing-reefs into barrier-reefs, and into atolls - Evidence of changes in level - Breaches in barrier-reefs - Maldiva atolls, their peculiar structure - Dead and submerged reefs - Areas of subsidence and elevation - Distribution of volcanoes - Subsidence slow and vast in amount.

Chapter XXI

Mauritius, beautiful appearance of - Great crateriform ring of mountains - Hindoos - St. Helena - History of the changes in the vegetation - Cause of the extinction of land-shells - Ascension - Variation in the imported rats - Volcanic bombs - Beds of infusoria - Bahia, Brazil - Splendour of tropical scenery - Pernambuco - Singular reefs - Slavery - Return to England - Retrospect on our voyage.

Index

 


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List of Illustrations