Geological Journeys in South America 347 



plants growing near, and with living corals in the tidal pools at 

 my feet 1 ." 



But it was when the Beagle, after touching at St Paul's rock 

 and Tristan d'Acunha (for a sufficient time only to collect specimens), 

 reached the shores of South America, that Darwin's real work began ; 

 and he was able, while the marine surveys were in progress, to make 

 many extensive journeys on land. His letters at this time show that 

 geology had become his chief delight, and such exclamations as 

 "Geology carries the day," "I find in Geology a never failing interest," 

 etc. abound in his correspondence. 



Darwin's time was divided between the study of the great deposits 

 of red mud the Pampean formation with its interesting fossil bones 

 and shells affording proofs of slow and constant movements of the 

 land, and the underlying masses of metamorphic and plutonic rocks. 

 Writing to Henslow in March, 1834, he says : " I am quite charmed 

 with Geology, but, like the wise animal between two bundles of hay, I 

 do not know which to like best ; the old crystalline groups of rocks, or 

 the softer and fossiliferous beds. When puzzling about stratification, 

 etc., I feel inclined to cry ' a fig for your big oysters, and your bigger 

 megatheriums.' But then when digging out some fine bones, I wonder 

 how any man can tire his arms with hammering granite 2 ." In the 

 passage quoted on page 345 we are told by Darwin that he loved to 

 reason about and attempt to predict the nature of the rocks in each 

 new district before he arrived at it. 



This love of guessing as to the geology of a district he was about 

 to visit is amusingly expressed by him in a letter (of May, 1832) to his 

 cousin and old college-friend, Fox. After alluding to the beetles he 

 had been collecting a taste his friend had in common with himself 

 he writes of geology that "It is like the pleasure of gambling. 

 Speculating on first arriving, what the rocks may be, I often mentally 

 cry out 3 to 1 tertiary against primitive ; but the latter have hitherto 

 won all the bets 3 ." 



Not the least important of the educational results of the voyage 

 to Darwin was the acquirement by him of those habits of industry 

 and method which enabled him in after life to accomplish so much 

 in spite of constant failures of health. From the outset, he daily 

 undertook and resolutely accomplished, in spite of sea-sickness and 

 other distractions, four important tasks. In the first place he regularly 

 wrote up the pages of his Journal, in which, paying great attention to 

 literary style and composition, he recorded only matters that would 

 be of general interest, such as remarks on scenery and vegetation, 

 on the peculiarities and habits of animals, and on the characters, 



1 L. L. i. p. 66. 2 L. L. i. p. 249. 3 L. L. i. p. 233. 



