114 APPOINTMENT TO THE BEAGLE. [Ch. V. 



him some practical experience, and perhaps of more import- 

 ance in helping to give him some confidence in himself. In 

 July of the same year, 1831, he was " working like a tiger " 

 at Geology, and trying to make a map of Shropshire, but not 

 finding it " as easy as I expected." 



In writing to Henslow about the same time, he gives some 

 account of his work : — 



■ I have been working at so many tilings that I have not 

 got on much with geology. I suspect the first expedition I 

 take, clinometer and hammer in hand, will send me back very 

 little wiser and a good deal more puzzled than when I started. 

 As yet I have only indulged in hypotheses, but they are such 

 powerful ones that I suppose, if they were put into action but 

 for one day, the world would come to an end." 



He was evidently most keen to get to work with Sedgwick, 

 who had promised to take him on a geological tour in North 

 Wales, for he wrote to Henslow : " I have not heard from 

 Professor Sedgwick, so I am afraid ho will not pay the Severn 

 formations a visit. I hope and trust you did your best to 

 urge him." 



My father has given in his Becollections some account of 

 this Tour ; there too we read of the projected excursion to the 

 Canaries. 



In April 1831, he writes to Fox : " At present I talk, think, 

 and dream of a scheme I have almost hatched of going to the 

 Canary Islands. I have long had a wish of seeing tropical 

 scenery and vegetation, and, according to Humboldt, Teneriffe 

 is a very pretty specimen." And again in May : " As for my 

 Canary scheme, it is rash of you to ask questions ; my other 

 friends most sincerely wish me there, I plague them so with 

 talking about tropical scenery, &c. Eyton will go next 

 summer, and I am learning Spanish." 



Later on in the summer the scheme took more definite 

 form, and the date seems to have been fixed for June 1832. 

 He got information in London about passage-money, and in 

 July was working at Spanish and calling Fox " un grandisimo 

 lebron," in proof of his knowledge of the language. But even 

 then he seems to have had some doubts about his companions' 

 zeal, for he writes to Henslow (July 27, 1831) : " I hope you 

 continue to fan your Canary ardour. I read and re-read 

 Humboldt;* do you do the same. I am sure nothing will 

 prevent us seeing the Great Dragon Tree." 



* The copy of Humboldt given by Henslow to my father, which is in 

 my possession, is a double memento of the two men — the author and the 

 donor, who so greatly influenced his life. 



