2o6 TH E VOYAGE. /ETAT. 23. [1832, 



in placing me there. I will not rapturise again, but I give 

 myself great credit in not being crazy out of pure delight. 

 Give my love to every soul at home, and to the Owens. 

 I think one's affections, like other good things, flourish and 

 increase in these tropical regions. 



The conviction that I am walking in the New World is 

 even yet marvellous in my own eyes, and I dare say it is little 

 less so to you, the receiving a letter from a son of yours in 

 such a quarter. 



Believe me, my dear Father, 

 Your most affectionate son, 



CHARLES DARWIN, 



C. Darwin to W. D. Fox. 



Botofogo Bay, near Rio de Janeiro, 



May, 1832 



MY DEAR Fox, 



I have delayed writing to you and all my other friends till 

 I arrived here and had some little spare time. My mind has 

 been, since leaving England, in a perfect hurricane of delight 

 and astonishment, and to this hour scarcely a minute has 

 passed in idleness. . . . 



At St. Jago my natural history and most delightful labours 

 commenced. During the three weeks I collected a host of 

 marine animals, and enjoyed many a good geological walk. 

 Touching at some islands, we sailed to Bahia, and from thence 

 to Rio, where I have already been some weeks. My collec- 

 tions go on admirably in almost every branch. As for in- 

 sects, I trust I shall send a host of undescribed speci.es to 

 England. I believe they have no small ones in the collec- 

 tions, and here this morning I have taken minute Hydropori, 

 Noterus, Colymbetes, Hydrophilus, Hydrobius, Gromius, &c., 

 &c., as specimens of fresh-water beetles. I am entirely occu- 

 pied with land animals, as the beach is only sand. Spiders 

 and the adjoining tribes have perhaps given me, from their 

 novelty, the most pleasure. I think I have already taken 

 several new genera. 



