THE VOYAGE. 65 



Tierra del Fuego excited in me, has left an indelible 

 impression on my mind. The sight of a naked savage 

 in his native land is an event which can never be for- 

 gotten. Many of my excursions on horseback through 

 wild countries, or in the boats, some of which lasted 

 several weeks, were deeply interesting : their dis- 

 comfort and some degree of danger were at that time 

 hardly a drawback, and none at all afterwards. I 

 also reflect with high satisfaction on some of my scien- 

 tific work, such as solving the problem of coral islands, 

 and making out the geological structure of certain 

 islands, for instance, St. Helena. Nor must I pass 

 over the discovery of the singular relations of the 

 animals and plants inhabiting the several islands of 

 the Galapagos archipelago, and of all of them to the 

 inhabitants of South America. 



As far as I can judge of myself, I worked to the 

 utmost during the voyage from the mere pleasure of 

 investigation, and from my strong desire to add a few 

 facts to the great mass of facts in Natural Science. 

 But I was also ambitious to take a fair place among 

 scientific men, whether more ambitious or less so 

 than most of my fellow-workers, I can form no 

 opinion. 



The geology of St. Jago is very striking, yet simple : 

 a stream of lava formerly flowed over the bed of the 

 sea, formed of triturated recent shells and corals, 

 which it has baked into a hard white rock. Since 

 then the whole island has been upheaved. But the 

 line of white rock revealed to me a new and important 

 fact, namely, that there had been afterwards subsi- 



VOL. i. F 



