THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE 531 



could our progenitors have been men like these? — men, 

 whose very signs and expressions are less intelligible to us 

 than those of the domesticated animals; men, who do not 

 possess the instinct of those animals, nor yet appear to boast 

 of human reason, or at least of arts consequent on that 

 reason. I do not believe it is possible to describe or paint 

 the difference between savage and civilized man. It is 

 the difference between a wild and tame animal: and part 

 of the interest in beholding a savage, is the same which 

 would lead every one to desire to see the lion in his desert, 

 the tiger tearing his prey in the jungle, or the rhinoceros 

 wandering over the wild plains of Africa. 



Among the other most remarkable spectacles which we 

 have beheld, may be ranked, the Southern Cross, the cloud 

 of Magellan, and the other constellations of the southern 

 hemisphere — the water-spout — the glacier leading its blue 

 stream of ice, over-hanging the sea in a bold precipice — a 

 lagoon-island raised by the reef-building corals — an active 

 volcano — and the overwhelming effects of a violent earth- 

 quake. These latter phenomena, perhaps, possess for me a 

 peculiar interest, from their intimate connection with the 

 geological structure of the world. The earthquake, however, 

 must be to every one a most impressive event: the earth, 

 considered from our earliest childhood as the type of solid- 

 ity, has oscillated like a thin crust beneath our feet; and 

 in seeing the laboured works of man in a moment over- 

 thrown, we feel the insignificance of his boasted power. 



It has been said, that the love of the chase is an inherent 

 delight in man — a relic of an instinctive passion. If so, I 

 am sure the pleasure of living in the open air, with the sky 

 for a roof and the ground for a table, is part of the same 

 feeling; it is the savage returning to his wild and native 

 habits. I always look back to our boat cruises, and my land 

 journeys, when through unfrequented countries, with an ex- 

 treme delight, which no scenes of civilization could have 

 created. I do not doubt that every traveller must remember 

 the glowing sense of happiness which he experienced, when 

 he first breathed in a foreign clime, where the civilized man 

 had seldom or never trod. 



There are several other sources of enjoyment in a long 



