28 Charles Darwin. 



which Darwin landed with great difficulty, owing to 

 the heavy sea, and found to be completely covered 

 with a dense jungle hard to cross or penetrate. It 

 was in this neighbourhood that the young naturalist 

 underwent the experience of crossing the line. Nep- 

 tune came aboard, as usual, and claimed as a victim 

 every one who had not crossed the equator. Dar- 

 win submitted with his accustomed good-humour ; 

 was lathered with soft-soap and tar, then shaved with 

 a saw, and finally dumped unceremoniously into a 

 sail full of water, having as a consolation the reflec- 

 tion that he was but one of many predecessors. 



On the last day of February the Beagle made 

 Bahia, where Darwin for the first time found himself 

 in a purely Southern country with a wealth of tropi- 

 cal verdure on every hand. The ocean teemed with 

 animal life, new and striking to his eye, while it was 

 but a step into the tropical forest, where vegetation 

 ran wild and flourished with a rank exuberance that 

 he had never dreamed of. In his Journal he penned 

 the following : " Delight itself, however, is a weak 

 term to express the feelings of a naturalist who, for 

 the first time, has wandered by himself in a Brazilian 

 forest. The elegance of the grasses, the novelty of 

 the parasitical plants, the beauty of the flowers, the 

 glossy green of the foliage, but, above all, the gen- 

 eral luxuriance of the vegetation, filled me with ad- 

 miration. A most paradoxical mixture of sound and 

 silence pervades the shady parts of the wood. The 

 noise from the insects is so loud that they may be 

 heard even in a vessel anchored several hundred 

 yards from the shore ; yet within the recesses of the 



