372 Darwin and Geology 



I'Atlaiitique, oblig^ que j'^tais de comparer d'line maiiih-e suivie les 

 r^sultats auxquels jetais conduit avec ceux de Darwin, qui servaient 

 de controle ^ mes constatations. Je ne tardai pas k ^prouver une vive 

 admiration pour ce chercheur qui, sans autre appareil que la loupe, 

 sans autre reaction que quelques essais pyrognostiques, plus rarement 

 quelques mesures au goniom^re, parvenait k discerner la nature des 

 agr^gats min^ralogiques les plus complexes et les plus varies. Ce 

 coup d'oeil qui savait embrasser de si vastes horizons, p^n^tre ici 

 profond^ment tous les details lithologiques. Avec quelle s<iret^ et 

 quelle exactitude la structure et la composition des roclies ne sont- 

 elles pas d^termin(5es, I'origine de ces masses min^rales d^uite et 

 confirmee par I'c^tude compar^e des manifestations volcaniques 

 d'autres regions ; avec quelle science les relations entre les faits 

 qu'il ddcouvre et ceux signal^s ailleurs par ses devanciers ne sont- 

 elles pas Stabiles, et comme voici ^branl^es les hypotheses r^gnantes, 

 admises sans preuves, celles, par exemple, des crat^res de soul^ve- 

 ment et de la diflf^renciation radicale des ph^nomfenes plutoniques et 

 volcaniques ! Ce qui achfeve de donner k ce livre un incomparable 

 nitrite, ce sont les id^es nouvelles qui s'y trouvent en germe et 

 jet^es Ik comme au hasard ainsi qu'un superflu d'abondance in- 

 tellectuelle in^puisable\" 



While engaged in his study of banded lavas, Darwin was struck 

 with the analogy of their structure with that of glacier ice, and a 

 note on the subject, in the form of a letter addressed to Professor 

 J. D. Forbes, was published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society 

 of Edinburgh'^. 



From April, 1832, to September, 1835, Darwin had been occupied 

 in examining the coast or making inland journeys in the interior of the 

 South American continent. Thus while eighteen months were devoted, 

 at the beginning and end of the voyage to the study of volcanic islands 

 and coral-reefs, no less than three and a half years were given to 

 South American geology. The heavy task of dealing with the notes 

 and specimens accumulated during that long period was left by 

 Darwin to the last. Finishing the Volcanic Islands on February 

 14th, 1844, he, in July of the same year, commenced the preparation 

 of two important works which engaged him till near the end of the 

 year 1846. The first was his Geological Observations on South 

 America, the second a recast of his Journal, published under the 

 short title of A Naturalist's Voyage round the World. 



The first of these works contains an immense amount of informa- 

 tion collected by the author under great difficulties and not un- 

 frequently at considerable risk to life and health. No sooner had 



^ Observatioiu GMogiqnes sur les Iks Volcaniques..., Paris, 1902, pp. vi., vii. 

 a Vol. II. (1844-5), pp. 17, 18. 



