JOURNAL 
CHAPTER I. 
Porto Praya—Ribeira Grande—Atmospheric Dust with Infusoria—Habits 
of a Sea-slug and Cuttle-fish—St. Paul's Rocks, non-volcanic—Singular 
Incrustations—Insects the first Colonists of Islands—Fernando Noronha 
—Bahia—Burnished Rocks—Habits of a Diodon—Pelagie Conferve and 
Infusoria—Causes of discoloured Sea. 
ST. JAGO—CAPE DE VERD ISLANDS, 
Arter having been twice driven back by heavy south-western 
gales, Her Majesty’s ship Beagle, a ten-gun brig, under the com- 
mand of Captain Fitz Roy, R.N., sailed from Devonport on the 
27th of December, 1831. The object of the expedition was to 
complete the survey of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, com- 
menced under Captain King in 1826 to 1830—to survey the 
shores of Chile, Peru, and of some islands in the Pacific—and 
to carry a chain of chronometrical measurements round the 
World. On the 6th of January we reached Teneriffe, but were 
prevented landing, by fears of our bringing the cholera: the 
next morning we saw the sun rise behind the rugged outline of 
the Grand Canary island, and suddenly illumine the Peak of 
Teneriffe, whilst the lower parts were veiled in fleecy clouds. 
This was the first of many delightful days never to be forgotten. 
On the 16th of January, 1832, we anchored at Porto Praya, in 
St. Jago, the chief island of the Cape de Verd archipelago. 
The neighbourhood of Porto Praya, viewed from the sea, 
wears a desolate aspect. The volcanic fires of a past age, and 
the scorching heat ofa tropical sun, have in most places rendered 
the soil unfit for vegetation. ‘The country rises in successive 
