CHARLES DARWIN. 7o 



To this voyage, and to the use Darwin made of the rich and 

 golden opportunities afforded him, may be traced, through 

 many stages and by slow degrees, the Origin of Species^ the 

 Descent of Man, and to a large extent nearly all his other 

 works. As Grant Allen says, speaking of the countries visitedj 

 their glorious scenery and marvellous contents, " This was the real 

 great University in which he studied nature and took his degree. 

 Our evolutionist was 7iow being educated." 



Before touching at the Cape de Verdes, Darwin had begun his 

 work by observing that the fine dust falling on the deck contained 

 no fewer than 67 organic forms, together with particles of stone so 

 big that they measured "above the thousandth of an inch square " ! 

 *' After this," says he, " one need not be surprised at the diffusion 

 of the far lighter and smaller sporules of cryptogamic plants." 

 From these islands the Beagle passed in due course to Bahia, Rio, 

 Monte Video, and the East coast of South America, on to Buenos 

 Ayres, Patagonia, and the Falklands, to Chili and Peru, to the 

 curious and interesting islands of the Galopagos Archipelago, 

 where our hero found a veritable " happy hunting-ground " ; 

 thence to Tahiti and the glorious scenery of Polynesia ; on to New 

 Zealand, Australia, Tasmania, and Keeling Island of ' Coral 

 Reef renown; thence to Mauritius, St. Helena, Ascension, 

 Pernambuco, and ' Home.' A great opportunity and the man 

 ready to use it ! " Organism and environment in perfect harmony ! " 

 What wonder that with these two so wondrously moulded there 

 should have come into action all that almost superhuman industry, 

 perseverance, patient research, and untiring conquest of difficulty 

 that gave to us the life-work of Charles Darwin ? 



On his return to England, tlie history of the expedition 

 was published as a series of volumes together, entitled The 

 Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle, the whole being under 

 his own editorship, the various parts being undertaken by 

 Owen, Waterhouse, Gould, Jenyns, and Bell. The Botan- 

 ical department was undertaken by Hooker, Berkeley, and 

 Henslow. If we add to all these the volumes that Darwin 

 himself wrote and issued, we gain some idea of the enor- 

 mous amount of material collected, and the " capacity for taking 

 pains " shown by the great naturalist. The fuller account of the 



