DARWIN'S WANDER-YEARS 57 



Here he examines the tubular lightning-holes melted in 

 the solid rock of Maldonado by the electric energy; 

 and there he observes the moving boulder-streams that 

 course like torrents down the rugged corries of the 

 Falkland Islands. At one time he works upon the 

 unstudied geology of the South American Pampas ; at 

 another, he inspects the now classical lagoon and nar- 

 row fringing reef of the Keeling archipelago. Every- 

 where he sees whatever of most noteworthy in animate 

 or inanimate nature is there to be seen ; and every- 

 where he draws from it innumerable lessons, to be 

 applied hereafter to the special field of study upon 

 which his' intense and active energies were finally 

 concentrated. It is not too much to say, indeed, that 

 it was the voyage of the ' Beagle ' which gave us in the 

 last resort the ' Origin of Species ' and its great fellow 

 the ' Descent of Man.' 



