80 LIFE OF 



he printed some extracts from his letters, for distribution 

 among the members of the Cambridge Philosophical 

 Society, in consequence of the notice excited by some 

 geological observations they contained, which had been 

 read before the society on the i6th of November previous. 

 The following points having a personal reference to 

 the traveller may be quoted. On August 15, 1832, 

 Darwin wrote from Monte Video, " I might collect a far 

 greater number of specimens of invertebrate animals if 

 I took up less time over each : but I have come to the 

 conclusion that two animals with their original colour 

 and shape noted down will be more valuable to natura- 

 lists than six with only dates and place." Here we see the 

 accuracy which was the source of much of his after- 

 success. On November 24, 1832, he writes from 

 the same place, " As for one little toad, I hope it may 

 be new, that it may be christened ' Diabolicus.' Milton 

 must allude to this very individual, when he talks of 

 ' squat like a toad.' " In March, 1834, writing from East 

 Falkland Island, he says, " The whole of the east coast 

 of the southern part of South America has been elevated 

 from the ocean since a period during which mussels have 

 not lost their blue colour." Describing his examination 

 of the central peaks of the Andes in Chili, he says, 

 April 1 8, 1835, "I cannot tell you how much I 

 enjoyed some of these views ; it is worth coming from 

 England, once to feel such intense delight. At an 

 elevation of from ten to twelve thousand feet, there 

 is a transparency in the air, and a confusion of distances, 

 and a sort of stillness, which give the sensation of being 

 in another world." 



