348 Darwin and Geology 



avocations, and political institutions of the various races of men with 

 whom he was brought in contact. It was the freshness of these 

 observations that gave his "Narrative" so much charm. Only in 

 those cases in which his ideas had become fully crystallised, did he 

 attempt to deal with scientific matters in this journal. His second 

 task was to write in voluminous note-books facts concerning animals 

 and plants, collected on sea or land, which could not be well made 

 out from specimens preserved in spirit ; but he tells us that, owing 

 to want of skill in dissecting and drawing, much of the time spent 

 in this work was entirely thrown away, " a great pile of MS. which 

 I made during the vovage has proved almost useless 1 ." Huxley 

 confirmed this judgment on his biological work, declaring that " all 

 his zeal and industry resulted, for the most part, in a vast accumu- 

 lation of useless manuscript 2 ." Darwin's third task was of a very 

 different character and of infinitely greater value. It consisted in 

 writing notes of his journeys on land — the notes being devoted to 

 the geology of the districts visited by him. These formed the basis, 

 not only of a number of geological papers published on his return, 

 but also of the three important volumes forming TJie Geology of the 

 voyage of the Beagle. On July 24th, 1834, when little more than half 

 of the voyage had been completed, Darwin wrote to Henslow, " My notes 

 are becoming bulky. I have about 600 small quarto pages full ; about 

 half of this is Geology 3 ." The last, and certainly not the least import- 

 ant of all his duties, consisted in numbering, cataloguing, and packing 

 his specimens for despatch to Henslow, who had undertaken the care 

 of them. In his letters he often expresses the greatest solicitude 

 lest the value of these specimens should be impaired by the removal 

 of the numbers corresponding to his manuscript lists. Science owes 

 much to Henslow's patient care of the collections sent to him by 

 Darwin. The latter wrote in Henslow's biography, " During the five 

 years' voyage, he regularly corresponded with me and guided my 

 efforts ; he received, opened, and took care of all the specimens sent 

 home in many large boxes 4 ." 



Darwin's geological specimens are now very appropriately lodged 

 for the most part in the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge, his original 

 Catalogue with subsequent annotations being preserved with them. 

 From an examination of these catalogues and specimens we are able 

 to form a fair notion of the work done by Darwin in his little cabin 

 in the Beagle, in the intervals between his land journeys. 



Besides writing up his notes, it is evident that he was able to 

 accomplish a considerable amount of study of his specimens, before 



1 L. L. i. p. 62. 2 Pr . 0C- Roy SoCi Vol. xliv. (1888), p. ix. 



3 M. L. i. p. 14. 



* Life of Hemloio, by L. Jenyns (Bloniefield), London, 1862, p. 53. 



