Cu. VI.] 1831—1836. 135 



tlio body, the feelings and memory are not divided. On the 

 contrary, tho pleasantest scenes in my life, many of which 

 have been in Cambridge, rise from the contrast of tho present, 

 the more vividly in my imagination. Do you think any 

 diamond beetlo will over give me so mnch pleasure as our 

 old friend crux-major ? .... It is one of my most constant 

 amusements to draw pictures of tho past ; and in them I 

 often see you and poor little Fan. Oh, Lord, and then old 

 Dash poor thing! Do you recollect how you all tormented 

 mo about his beautiful tail ? " — [From a letter to Fox.] 



To his sister, Juno 1833 : — 



"lam quito delighted to find the hide of the Megatherium 

 has given you all some little interest in my employments. 

 These fragments are not, however, by any means the most 

 valuable of the geological relics. I trust and believe that the 

 time spent in this voyage, if thrown away for all other 

 respects, will produce its full worth in Natural History ; and 

 it appears to me the doing what little wo can to increase the 

 general stock of knowledge is as respectable an object of life 

 as one can in any likelihood pursue. It is more the result of 

 such reflections (as I have already said) than much immediate 

 pleasure which now makes me continue the voyage, together 

 with tho glorious prospect of the future, when passing tho 

 Straits of Magellan, wo have in truth tho world before us." 



To Fox, July 1835:— 



" I am glad to hear you have some thoughts of beginning 

 Geology. I hope you will ; there is so much larger a field for 

 thought than in the other branches of Natural History. I am 

 become a zealous disciple of Mr. Lyell's views, as known in 

 his admirable book. Geologising in South America, I am 

 tempted to carry parts to a greater extent even than he does. 

 Geology is a capital science to begin, as it requires nothing 

 but a little reading, thinking, and hammering. I have a 

 considerable body of notes together; but it is a constant 

 subject of perplexity to me, whether they are of sufficient 

 value for all the time I have spent about them, or whether 

 animals would not have been of more certain value." 



In the following letter to his sister Susan he gives an 

 account, — adapted to the non-geological mind, — of his South 

 American work : — 



Valparaiso, April 23, 1835. 



My dear Susan — I received, a few days since, your letter of 

 November ; the three letters which I before mentioned are yet 

 missing, but I do not doubt they will come to life. I returned 



