4 ALLAN HANCOCK PACIFIC EXPEDITIONS VOL. 1 



and west to the Galapagos, with Charles Darwin on board. One month, 

 September 15 to October 15, was spent among the islands, a short time 

 indeed; but Darwin could make more accurate observations on natural 

 phenomena in a month than most other people could in a much longer 

 period. Without flourish or exaggeration he gave in the Voyages of the 

 Beagle a simple, unvarnished description of what he saw and heard that 

 for clarity and exactitude remains unequaled. His observations were 

 confined mainly to the terrestrial species, the birds taking much of his 

 attention, but the marine iguana could not go unobserved. Marine shells 

 from the beaches and fish from the sea comprise his contribution to marine 

 zoology. 



In 1859 the Austrian frigate Novara, commanded by Commodore 

 B. von Wiillerstorf-Urbair, left Valparaiso for Europe via Cape Horn 

 on the last leg of a three-year voyage around the world. One of the scien- 

 tists, Dr. Karl Scherzer, made a leisurely journey home via the Isthmus 

 of Panama, stopping at Coquimbo, Caldera, Cobija, Iquique, Arica, Port 

 d'Islay, Chala, Pisco, Chinchas, Callao, Lima, Lambajeque, Payta, and 

 Taboga Island. The narrative describing this cruise appeared in 1861. 



In 1872 the Hassler, Louis Agassiz in charge, visited the Galapagos 

 briefly on a cruise from Boston to San Francisco via Cape Horn. An 

 account of the expedition appears in Nature (London) for 1872, and a 

 popular article by Elizabeth Agassiz in the Atlantic Monthly of the same 

 year. 



It might be well to mention the voyage of the Peterel, Commander 

 W. E. Cookson, in June, 1875, during which Abingdon, Charles, and 

 Albemarle (Tagus and Iguana coves) were visited and birds, reptiles, 

 myriapods, arachnids, insects, fishes, mollusks, crustaceans, and echino- 

 derms were collected. Reports on the collections by various authors ap- 

 peared in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, in 1877. 



In the following year, 1876, W. J. Fisher of San Francisco chartered 

 a small vessel to make an investigation of the shores of Lower California, 

 as well as of the islands near these shores, and the Gulf of California as 

 far south as the Tres Marias Islands, in the interest of natural history. 

 The mollusks were written up by Robert E. C. Stearns in Proceedings 

 of the United States National Museum, Volume XVIII, 1894, but there 

 is no information available as to what was done with the other collections. 



In 1883 the Italian frigate Vettor Pisani spent six months, from 

 January until June, along the west coast of South America between 

 Valparaiso and the Gulf of Guayaquil, collecting marine invertebrates 



