CHARLES DARWIN'S JOURNAL 



DURING THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. "BEAGLED 

 ROUND THE WORLD. 



CHAPTER I. 



ST. JAGC-- CAPE DE VERD ISLANDS. 



Porto Praya Ribeira Grande Atmospheric Dust with InfusoriaHabits 

 of a Sea-slug and Cuttle-fish St. Paul's Rocks, Non-volcanic Singular 

 Incrustations Insects the first Colonists of Islands Fernando Noronha 

 Bahia Burnished Rocks Habits of a Diodon Pelagic Confervse and 

 Infusoria Causes of Discoloured Sea. 



AFTER having been twice driven back by heavy south-western gales, 

 Her Majesty's ship Beagle, a ten-gun brig, under the command of 

 Captain Fitz Roy, R.N., sailed from Devonport on the 27th of 

 December, 1831. The object of the expedition was to complete the 

 survey of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, commenced under Captain 

 King in 1826 to 1830 to survey the shores of Chile, Peru, and of 

 some islands in the Pacific and to carry a chain of chronometrical 

 measurements round the world. On the 6th of January we reached 

 Teneriffe, but were prevented landing, by fears of our bringing the 

 cholera : the next morning we saw the sun rise behind the rugged 

 outline of the Grand Canary Island, and suddenly illumine the Peak 

 of Teneriffe, whilst the lower parts were veiled in fleecy clouds. This 

 was the first of many delightful days never to be forgotten. On the 

 i6th of January, 1832, we anchored at Porto Praya, in St. Jago, the 

 chief island of the Cape de Verd archipelago. 



The neighbourhood of Porto Praya, viewed from the sea, wears a 

 desolate aspect. The volcanic fires of a past age, and the scorching 

 heat of a tropical sun, have in most places rendered the soil unfit for 

 vegetation. The country rises in successive steps of table-land, inter- 

 spersed with some truncate conical hills, and the horizon is bounded 

 by an irregular chain of more lofty mountains. The scene, as beheld 

 through the hazy atmosphere of this climate, is one of great interest ; 

 if, indeed, a person, fresh from sea, and who has just walked, for 

 the first time, in a grove of cocoa-nut trees, can be a judge of anything 

 but his own happiness. The island would generally be considered as 

 very uninteresting; but to any one accustomed only to an English 



