ch. viii.] 1843-1854. 163 



and subsidence in the ocean may be traced by the state of 

 the coral reefs." 



The second part of the Geology of the Voyage of the 

 Beagle, i.e. the volume on Volcanic Islands, which specially 

 concerns us now, cannot be better described than by again 

 quoting from Sir A. Geikie (p. 18) : 



" Full of detailed observations, this work still remains 

 the best authority on the general geological structure of 

 most of the regions it describes. At the time it was written 

 the ' crater of elevation theory,' though opposed by Constant 

 Prevost, Scrope, and Lyell, was generally accepted, at least 

 on the Continent. Darwin, however, could not receive it as 

 a valid explanation of the facts ; and though he did not 

 share the view of its chief opponents, but ventured to pro- 

 pose a hypothesis of his own, the observations impartially 

 made and described by him in this volume must be regarded 

 as having contributed towards the final solution of the diffi- 

 culty." Geikie continues (p. 21) : " He is one of the earliest 

 writers to recognize the magnitude of the denudation to 

 which even recent geological accumulations have been sub- 

 jected. One of the most impressive lessons to be learnt 

 from his account of ' Volcanic Islands ' is the prodigious ex- 

 tent to which they have been denuded. . . . He was disposed 

 to attribute more of this work to the sea than most geolo- 

 gists would now admit ; but he lived himself to modify his 

 original views, and on this subject his latest utterances are 

 quite abreast of the time." 



An extract from a letter of my father's to Lyell shows 

 his estimate of his own work. " You have pleased me much 

 by saying that you intend looking through my Volcanic Isl- 

 ands : it cost me eighteen months ! ! ! and I have heard 

 of very few who have read it.* Now I shall feel, whatever 

 little (and little it is) there is confirmatory of old work, or 

 new, will work its effect and not be lost." 



The second edition of the Journal of Researches f was 



* He wrote to Herbert : " I have long discovered that geologists never 

 read each other's works, and that the only object in writing a book is a proof 

 of earnestness, and that you do not form your opinions without undergoing 

 labour of some kind. Geology is at present very oral, and what I here say is 

 to a great extent quite true." And to Fitz-Koy, on the same subject, he wrote : 

 '{I have sent my South American Geology to Dover Street, and you will get it, 

 no doubt, in the course of time. You do not know what you threaten when you 

 propose to read it it is purely geological. I said to my brother, ' You will of 

 course read it, 1 and his answer'was, ' Upon my life, I would sooner even buy it.' " 



t The first edition was published in 1839, as vol. iii. of the Voyages of the 

 ' Adventure' 1 and ' Beagle,? 



