DARWIN. 45 



Concepcion (afterwards visited) was thrown down, and a 

 most impressive sight met the travellers. 



Arriving at Valparaiso again on March u, 1835, after 

 only an interval of two days the indefatigable explorer 

 started to cross the Cordillera by the seldom traversed 

 Portillo pass. Here geological observations were abun- 

 dant. The roar of the mountain torrents spoke elo- 

 quently to the geologist. " The thousands and thousands 

 of stones, which, striking against each other, make the 

 one dull uniform sound, are all hurrying in one direction. 

 It is like thinking of time, when the minute that now 

 glides past is irrecoverable. So it is with these stones ; 

 the ocean is their eternity, and each note of that wild 

 music tells of one other step towards their destiny." Who 

 can fail to discern in such a passage the poetic instinct 

 which Erasmus Darwin more fully manifested ? 



Mendozawas reached on March 27th, and on the 2gth 

 the return journey by the northern or Uspallata pass was 

 commenced. On the loth of April Santiago was again 

 arrived at, and Mr. Caldcleugh most hospitably welcomed 

 the traveller, delighted with his expedition. " Never," 

 he says, " did I more deeply enjoy an equal space of 

 time." Various excursions in Northern Chili and Peru 

 followed. Little was seen of Peru, owing to the troubled 

 state of public affairs, and there was very little regret 

 when the Beagle started early in September on her 

 journey across the Pacific. 



The Galapagos Islands, with their two thousand 

 volcanic craters, their apparently leafless bushes and 

 wretched weeds, their peculiar animals, so unsuspicious 

 of man that they did not move when stones were thrown, 



