On board the “ Beagle” 345 
prevalent catastrophism, and that his mind was becoming a field in 
which the seeds which Lyell was afterwards to sow would “fall on 
good ground”? 
The second period of Darwin's geological career—the five years 
spent by him on board the Beagle—was the one in which by far the 
most important stage in his mental development was accomplished. 
He left England a healthy, vigorous and enthusiastic collector ; he 
returned five years later with unique experiences, the germs of great 
ideas, and a knowledge which placed him at once in the foremost ranks 
of the geologists of that day. Huxley has well said that “Darwin found 
on board the Beagle that which neither the pedagogues of Shrews- 
bury, nor the professoriate of Edinburgh, nor the tutors of Cambridge 
had managed to give him'.” Darwin himself wrote, referring to the 
date at which the voyage was expected to begin: “My second life 
will then commence, and it shall be as a birthday for the rest of my 
life?” ; and looking back on the voyage after forty years, he wrote : 
“The voyage of the Beagle has been by far the most important 
event in my life, and has determined my whole career ;...I have 
always felt that I owe to the voyage the first real training or 
education of my mind ; I was led to attend closely to several branches 
of natural history, and thus my powers of observation were improved, 
though they were always fairly developed®.” 
Referring to these general studies in natural history, however, 
Darwin adds a very significant remark: “The investigation of the 
geology of the places visited was far more important, as reasoning 
here comes into play. On first examining a new district nothing can 
appear more hopeless than the chaos of rocks; but by recording 
the stratification and nature of the rocks and fossils at many points, 
always reasoning and predicting what will be found elsewhere, light 
soon begins to dawn on the district, and the structure of the whole 
becomes more or less intelligible*.” 
The famous voyage began amid doubts, discouragements and dis- 
appointments. Fearful of heart-disease, sad at parting from home 
and friends, depressed by sea-sickness, the young explorer, after 
being twice driven back by baffling winds, reached the great object 
of his ambition, the island of Teneriffe, only to find that, owing to 
quarantine regulations, landing was out of the question. 
But soon this inauspicious opening of the voyage was forgotten. 
Henslow had advised his pupil to take with him the first volume of 
Lyell’s Principles of Geology, then just published—but cautioned 
him (as nearly all the leaders in geological science at that day would 
1 Proc. Roy. Soc. Vol. xxiv. (1888), p. ix. 20, L.1. p. 214. 
3 ZL. L. 1. p. 61. 41. L. 1 p. 62. 
