CHARLES DARWIN 1 07 



7. The Beagle sailed down the coast of South America Discoveries 

 and through the Straits of Magellan ; then northward 



up the coast of Chile, to the Galapagos Islands ; thence 

 across the Pacific, where Darwin made his famous study 

 of coral islands, to Australia and New Zealand ; from 

 Australia across the Indian Ocean to Cape Colony, then 

 once more across the Atlantic to Brazil, and home. In 

 South America Darwin made long trips overland, doing 

 a great deal of important zoological and geological work. 

 He discovered the bones of many remarkable extinct 

 animals, which were afterwards described by Professor 

 Owen. A skull representing a new suborder of mam- 

 mals was found in the yard of a farmhouse, where small 

 boys were amusing themselves by throwing stones at it. 

 Among living creatures perhaps the most interesting was 

 a new species of South American ostrich, which received 

 the name Rhea darwinii. In the Galapagos Islands, 

 Darwin noted that the different islands had distinct 

 species of birds and reptiles, and that the degree of re- 

 semblance between these species was roughly in pro- 

 portion to the distance between the islands. This 

 caused him to begin thinking definitely about the 

 mutability of species, though he had as yet no theory 

 or distinct opinion. 



8. In October, 1838, Darwin chanced to read the Maithus on 

 Essay on Population, by Maithus, which was then 



attracting a good deal of attention. In this work it was 8 erm of the 

 pointed out that populations tended to increase, and natural 

 consequently press on the means of subsistence, which selectlon 

 must be limited. Hence the process could not go on in- 

 definitely. Darwin relates that : "Being well prepared 

 to appreciate the struggle for existence which every- 

 where goes on, from long-continued observation of the 

 habits of animals and plants, it at once struck me that 



