THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE 



CHAPTER I 

 St. Jago — Cape de Verd Islands 



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 

 — Pelagic Confervae and Infusoria — Causes of discoloured Sea. 



A FTER having been twice driven back by heavy south- 

 Z\ western gales, Her Majesty's ship Beagle, a ten-gun 

 — brig, under the command 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 Pata- 

 gonia and Tierra del Fuego, commenced 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 land- 

 ing, 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 illuminate 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 of a tropical sun, have in most places 

 rendered the soil unfit for vegetation. The country rises in 

 successive steps of table-land, interspersed with some trun- 

 cate conical hills, and the horizon is bounded by an irregular 

 •chain of more lofty mountains. The scene, as beheld through 



11 



