JOURNAL 



OF 



CHARLES DARWIN, M.A., 



NATURALIST TO THE BEAGLE, 



CHAPTER L 



Porto Praya — Ribeira Grande — Dry and clear atmosphere — Effect of 

 lava on calcareous beach — Habits of Aplysia and Octopus — St. Paul's 

 rock non-volcanic — Incrustations and stalactites of phosphate of lime- 

 Insects first colonists — Fernando Noronha — Bahia — Extent of granite 

 — Burnished rocks — Habits of Diodon — Pelagic confervse, infusoria — 

 Causes of discoloured sea. 



ST. JAGO CAPE DE VERB ISLANDS. 



Jan. IGtvl, 1832.— The neighbourhood of Porto Praya, 

 viewed from the sea, wears a desolate aspect. The volcanic 

 fire of past ages, and the scorching heat of a tropical sun, 

 have in most places rendered the soil sterile and unfit for 

 vegetation. The country rises in successive steps of table 

 land, interspersed with some truncate conical hills, and the 

 horizon is bounded by an irregular chain of more lofty 

 mountains. The scene, as beheld through the hazy at- 

 mosphere of this climate, is one of great interest ; if, 

 indeed, a person, fresh from the sea, and who has just 

 walked, for the first time, in a grove of cocoa-nut trees, can 

 be a judge of any thing but his own happiness. The island 

 would generally be considered as very uninteresting ; but to 

 any one accustomed only to an English landscape, the novel 



VOL. III. B 



