JOURNAL. 



CHAPTER I. 



Porto Praya — T?ibeira Grande — Atmospheric Dust ■with Infusoria — Habits 

 of a Sea-slug and Cuttle-fish — St. Paul s Rocks, non-volcanic — Singular 

 Incrustations— Insects the first Colonists of Islands — Fernando Noronha 

 ■ — Bahia — Burnished Rocks — Habits of a Diodon — Pelagic Confervse and 

 Infusoria — Causes of discoloured Sea. 



ST. JAGO — CAPE DE VERD ISLANDS. 



After having been twice driven back by heavy south-western 

 gales, Her Majesty's ship Beagle, a ten-gun brig, under the com- 

 mand of Captain Fitz Roy, R.N., sailed from Devonport on the 

 27th of December, 1831. The object of the expedition was to 

 complete the survey of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, com- 

 menced under Captain King in 1826 to 1830 — to survey the 

 shores of Chile, Peru, and of some islands in the Pacific — and 

 to carry a chain of chronometrical measurements round the 

 World. On the 6th of January we reached TenerifFe, but were 

 prevented landing, by fears of our bringing the cholera : the 

 next morninsf we saw the sun rise behind the rug'ored outline of 

 the Grand Canary island, and suddenly illumine the Peak of 

 Teneriffe, whilst the lower parts were veiled in fleecy clouds. 

 This was the first of many delightful days never to be forgotten. 

 On the 16th of January, 1832, -vve anchored at Porto Praya, in 

 St. Jago, the chief island of the Cape de Yerd archipelago. 



The neighbourhood of Porto Praya, viewed from the sea, 

 wears a desolate aspect. The volcanic fires of a past age, and 

 the scorching heat of a tropical sun, have in most places rendered 

 the soil unfit for vegetation. The country rises in successive 



