I834-] GEOLOGY. 255 



of trouble, for we all stick to our former opinions rather 

 more obstinately than before, and can give rather fewer 

 reasons for doing so. 



I do hope you will write to me : (' H.M.S. Beagle, 

 S. American Station ' will find me). I should much like 

 to hear in what state you are both in body and mind. 

 I Quien sabe ? as the people say here (and God knows they 

 well may, for they do know little enough), if you are not a 

 married man, and may be nursing, as Miss Austen says, little 

 olive branches, little pledges of mutual affection. Eheu ! 

 Eheu ! this puts me in mind of former visions of glimpses 

 into futurity, where I fancied I saw retirement, green cottages, 

 and white petticoats. What will become of me hereafter 

 I know not ; I feel like a ruined man, who does not see or 

 care how to extricate himself. That this voyage must 

 come to a conclusion my reason tells me, but otherwise I 

 see no end to it. It is impossible not bitterly to regret the 

 friends and other sources of pleasure one leaves behind in 

 England; in place of it there is much solid enjoyment, 

 some present, but more in anticipation, when the ideas 

 gained during the voyage can be compared to fresh ones. 

 I find in Geology a never-failing interest, as it has been 

 remarked, it creates the same grand ideas respecting this 

 world which Astronomy does for the universe. We have 

 seen much fine scenery ; that of the Tropics in its glory and 

 hixuriance exceeds even the language of Humboldt to de- 

 scribe. A Persian writer could alone do justice to it, and 

 if he succeeded he would in England be called the ' Grand- 

 father of all liars.' 



But I have seen nothing which more completely aston- 

 ished me than the first sight of a savage. It was a naked 

 Fuegian, his long hair blowing about, his face besmeared 

 with paint. There is in their countenances an expression 

 which I believe, to those who have not seen it, must be in- 

 conceivably wild. Standing on a rock he uttered tones and 



