LITTLE 

 JOURNEYS 



ship was in good order, and so thorough was he that 

 he once said to Darwin, who was constantly casting 

 his net for specimens, "If I were the skipper I 'd soon 

 have you and your beastly belitterment out of this ship 

 with all your devilish, damned mess." 

 And Darwin, much amused, wrote this down in his 

 Journal, and added, **Wickham is a most capital 

 fellow." 



The discipline and system of ship life, the necessity of 

 working in a small space, and of improving the calm 

 weather, and seizing every moment "when on shore, all 

 tended to work in Darwin's nature exactly the habit 

 that was needed to make him the greatest naturalist 

 of his age. 



Every sort of life that lived in the sea was new and 

 wonderful to him. Very early on this trip Darwin be- 

 gan to work on the Cirripedia (barnacles) and we hear 

 of Captain Fitz-Roy obligingly hailing homeward- 

 bound ships, and putting out a small boat, rowing 

 alongside, asking politely, to the great astonishment 

 of the party hailed, " W^ould you oblige us with a few^ 

 barnacles off the bottom of your good ship? " All this 

 that the Volunteer, w^ho was dubbed the " Flycatcher," 

 might have something upon which to work. 

 W^hen on shore a sailor w^as detailed by Captain Fitz- 

 Roy to attend the " Flycatcher," with a bag to carry 

 the specimens, geological, botanical and zoological, and 

 a cabin boy was set apart to write notes. This boy w^ho 

 afterw^ard became Governor of Queensland and a K. C. 

 B. used in after years to boast a bit, and rightfully, of 

 170 



