348 Darwin and Geology 
avocations, and political institutions of the various races of men with 
whom he was brought in contact. It was the freshness of these 
observations that gave his “Narrative” so much charm. Only in 
those cases in which his ideas had become fully crystallised, did he 
attempt to deal with scientific matters in this journal. His second 
task was to write in voluminous note-books facts concerning animals 
and plants, collected on sea or land, which could not be well made 
out from specimens preserved in spirit; but he tells us that, owing 
to want of skill in dissecting and drawing, much of the time spent 
in this work was entirely thrown away, “a great pile of MS. which 
I made during the vovage has proved almost useless.” Huxley 
confirmed this judgment on his biological work, declaring that “all 
his zeal and industry resulted, for the most part, in a vast accumu- 
lation of useless manuscript.” Darwin’s third task was of a very 
different character and of infinitely greater value. It consisted in 
writing notes of his journeys on land—the notes being devoted to 
the geology of the districts visited by him. These formed the basis, 
not only of a number of geological papers published on his return, 
but also of the three important volumes forming The Geology of the 
voyage of the Beagle. On July 24th, 1834, when little more than half 
of the voyage had been completed, Darwin wrote to Henslow, “My notes 
are becoming bulky. I have about 600 small quarto pages full; about 
half of this is Geology*.” The last, and certainly not the least import- 
ant of all his duties, consisted in numbering, cataloguing, and packing 
his specimens for despatch to Henslow, who had undertaken the care 
of them. In his letters he often expresses the greatest solicitude 
lest the value of these specimens should be impaired by the removal 
of the numbers corresponding to his manuscript lists. Science owes 
much to Henslow’s patient care of the collections sent to him by 
Darwin. The latter wrote in Henslow’s biography, “During the five 
years’ voyage, he regularly corresponded with me and guided my 
efforts; he received, opened, and took care of all the specimens sent 
home in many large boxes‘,” 
Darwin’s geological specimens are now very appropriately lodged 
for the most part in the Sedgwick Museum, Cambridge, his original 
Catalogue with subsequent annotations being preserved with them. 
From an examination of these catalogues and specimens we are able 
to form a fair notion of the work done by Darwin in his little cabin 
in the Beagle, in the intervals between his land journeys. 
Besides writing up his notes, it is evident that he was able to 
accomplish a considerable amount of study of his specimens, before 
1D, L.1. p. 62. ® Proc. Roy. Soc. Vol. xtav. (1888), p. ix. 
3M. 1.1. p.14. 
‘ Life of Henslow, by L. Jenyns (Blomefield), London, 1862, p. 53. 
