34 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 



the latter part of my school life I became passionately 

 fond of shooting ; I do not believe that any one could 

 have shown more zeal for the most holy cause than I 

 did for shooting birds. How well I remember killing 

 my first snipe, and my excitement was so great that I 

 had much difficulty in reloading my gun from the 

 trembling of my hands. This taste long continued, 

 and I became a very good shot. When at Cambridge 

 I used to practise throwing up my gun to my shoulder 

 before a looking-glass to see that I threw it up straight. 

 Another and better plan was to get a friend to wave 

 about a lighted candle, and then to fire at it with a 

 cap on the nipple, and if the aim was accurate the 

 little puff of air would blow out the candle. The 

 explosion of the cap caused a sharp crack, and I was 

 told that the tutor of the college remarked, " What 

 an extraordinary thing it is, Mr. Darwin seems to 

 spend hours in cracking a horse-whip in his room, 

 for I often hear the crack when I pass under his 

 windows." 



I had many friends amongst the schoolboys, whom 

 I loved dearly, and I think that my disposition was 

 then very affectionate. 



With respect to science, I continued collecting 

 minerals with much zeal, but quite unscientifically 

 all that I cared about was a wcvt-named mineral, and I 

 hardly attempted to classify them. I must have ob- 

 served insects with some little care, for when ten years 

 old (1819) I went for three weeks to Plas Edwards 

 on the sea-coast in Wales, I was very much interested 

 and surprised at seeing a large black and scarlet 



