ix] OF EVOLUTION 99 



narrow quarters of the little ' ten-gun brig,' he 

 learned methodical habits and how best to economise 

 space and time ; during his long expeditions on 

 shore, rendered possible by the work of a surveying 

 vessel, he had ample opportunities for observing and 

 collecting; and, above all, the absence of the 

 distractions from quiet meditation, afforded by a 

 long sea-voyage, proved in his case invaluable. 

 Very diligently did he work, accumulating a vast 

 mass of notes, with catalogues of the specimens he 

 sent home from time to time to Henslow. He had 

 received no careful biological training, and Huxley 

 considered that the voluminous notes he made on 

 zoological subjects were almost useless 100 . Very 

 different was the case, however, with his geological 

 notes. He had learned to use the blowpipe, and 

 simple microscope, as well as his hammer and 

 clinometer ; and the notes which he made concerning 

 his specimens, before packing them up for Cambridge, 

 were at the same time full, accurate and suggestive. 



Darwin has recorded in his autobiography the 

 wonderful effect produced on his mind by the reading 

 of the first volume of LyelTs Principles an effect 

 very different from that anticipated by Henslow 101 . 

 From that moment he became the most enthusiastic 

 of geologists, and never fails in his letters to insist on 

 his preference for geology over all other branches of 

 science. Again and again we find him recording 



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