MODERN EVOLUTION. iji 



tell me you are very clever." It is amusing to find 

 that Darwin narrowly escaped being rejected by 

 Fitz-Roy, who, as a disciple of Lavater, doubted 

 whether a man with such a nose as Darwin's " could 

 possess sufficient energy and determination for the 

 voyage." 



The details of that voyage, the first of the two 

 memorable events in Darwin's otherwise unadventur- 

 ous life, are set down in delightful narrative in his- 

 Naturalist's Voyage Round the World, and it will 

 suffice to quote a passage from the autobiography 

 bearing on the significance of the materials collected 

 during his five years' absence. 



During the voyage of the Beagle I had been deeply im- 

 pressed by discovering in the Pampean formation great fossil 

 animals covered with armour lilce that on the existing arma- 

 dillos ; secondly, by the manner in which closely allied animals 

 replace one another in proceeding southwards over the con- 

 tinent ; and thirdly, by the South American character of most 

 of the productions of the Galapagos Archipelago, and more 

 especially by the manner in which they differ slightly on each 

 island of the group, none of the islands appearing to be very 

 ancient in a geological sense. It was evident that such facts 

 as these, as well as many others, could only be explained on 

 the supposition that species gradually became modified ; and 

 the subject haunted me. But it was equally evident that 

 " none of the evolutionary theories then current in the scien- 

 tific world " could account for the innumerable cases in which 

 organisms of every kind are beautifully adapted to their habits 

 of life. ... I had always been much struck by such adapta- 

 tions, and until these could be explained, it seemed to me 

 almost useless to endeavour to prove by indirect evidence that 

 species have been modified. ... In October, 1838, that is, 



