Ch. II.] VOYAGE. 25 



but neither of us saw a trace of the wonderful glacial pheno- 

 mena all around us; we did not notice the plainly scored 

 rocks, the perched boulders, the lateral and terminal moraines. 

 Yet these phenomena are so conspicuous that, as I declarod in 

 a paper published many years afterwards in the Philosophical 

 Magazine* a house burnt down by firo did not tell its story 

 more plainly than did this valley. If it had still been filled 

 by a glacier, tho phenomena would have been less distinct than 

 they now are. 



At Capel Curig I left Sedgwick and went in a straight 

 lino by compass and map across the mountains to Barmouth, 

 never following any track unless it coincided with my courso. 

 I thus came on some strange wild places, and enjoyed much 

 this manner of travelling. I visited Barmouth to see some 

 Cambridge friends who were reading there, and thence returned 

 to Shrewsbury and to Maer for shooting ; for at that time I 

 should have thought myself mad to give up the first days of 

 partridge-shooting for geology or any other science. 



Voyage of the ■ Beagle ' : from December 27, 1831, to Ochler 2, 



1836. 



On returning homo from my short geological tour in North 

 Wales, I found a letter from Henslow, informing me that 

 Captain Fitz-Roy was willing to give up part of his own cabin 

 to any young man who would volunteer to go with him without 

 pay as naturalist to the Voyage of the Beagle. I have given, 

 as I believe, in my MS. Journal an account of all tho circum- 

 stances which then occurred ; I will here only say that I was 

 instantly eager to accept the offer, but my father strongly 

 objected, adding the words, fortunate for me, " If you can find 

 any man of common-sense who advises you to go I will give 

 my consent." So I wrote that evening and refused the offer. On 

 the next morning I went to Maer to be ready for September 1st, 

 and whilst out shooting, my uncle | sent for me, offering to 

 drive me over to Shrewsbury and talk with my father, as my 

 uncle thought it would be wise in me to accept the offer. My 

 father always maintained that [my uncle] was one of the most 

 sensible men in the world, and he at once consented in tho 

 kindest manner. I had been rather extravagant at Cambridge, 

 and to console my father, said, " that I should be deuced clever 

 to spend more than my allowance whilst on board the Beagle ; n 

 but he answered with a smile, " But they toll me you are very 

 clever." 



* Philosophical Magazine, 1842. t Josiuh Wedgwood. 



