x OBITUARY 271 



voyage on which he was starting, with just insight, 

 his " second life/' (I. p. 214.) Happily for Darwin's 

 education, the school time of the " Beagle " lasted 

 five years instead of two ; and the countries 

 which the ship visited were singularly well fitted 

 to provide him with object-lessons, on the nature 

 of things, of the greatest value. 



While at sea, he diligently collected, studied, 

 and made copious notes upon the surface Fauna. 

 But with no previous training in dissection, hardly 

 any power of drawing, and next to no knowledge 

 of comparative anatomy, his occupation with work 

 of this kind notwithstanding all his zeal and 

 industry resulted, for the most part, in a 

 vast accumulation of useless manuscript. Some 

 acquaintance with the marine Crustacea, observa- 

 tions on Planarice and on the ubiquitous Sagitta, 

 seem to have been the chief results of a great 

 amount of labour in this direction. 



It was otherwise with the terrestrial phenomena 

 which came under the voyager's notice : and 

 Geology very soon took her revenge for the scorn 

 which the much-bored Edinburgh student had 

 poured upon her. Three weeks after leaving 

 England the ship touched land for the first time 

 at St. Jago, in the Cape de Verd Islands, and 

 Darwin found his attention vividly engaged by the 

 volcanic phenomena and the signs of upheaval 

 which the island presented. His geological 

 studies had already indicated the direction in 



