The Voyage of the Beagle | Page 8

OF MAGELLAN.
PLATE 59. MACROCYSTIS PYRIFERA, OR MAGELLAN KELP.
PLATE 60. TROCHILUS FORFICATUS.
PLATE 61. HACIENDA, CONDOR, CACTUS, ETC.
PLATE 62. CHILIAN MINER.
PLATE 63. CACTUS (Cereus Peruviana).
PLATE 64. CORDILLERAS FROM SANTIAGO DE CHILE.
PLATE 65. CHILIAN SPURS, STIRRUP, ETC.
PLATE 66. OLD CHURCH, CASTRO, CHILOE.
PLATE 67. INSIDE CHONOS ARCHIPELAGO.
PLATE 68. GUNNERA SCABRA, CHILOE.
PLATE 69. ANTUCO VOLCANO, NEAR TALCAHUANO.
PLATE 70. PANORAMIC VIEW OF COAST, CHILOE.
PLATE 71. INSIDE ISLAND OF CHILOE. SAN CARLOS.
PLATE 72. HIDE BRIDGE, SANTIAGO DE CHILE.
PLATE 73. CHILENOS.
PLATE 74. SOUTH AMERICAN BIT.
PLATE 75. BRIDGE OF THE INCAS, USPALLATA PASS.

PLATE 76. LIMA AND SAN LORENZO.
PLATE 77. COQUIMBO, CHILE.
PLATE 78. HUACAS, PERUVIAN POTTERY.
PLATE 79. TESTUDO ABINGDONII, GALAPAGOS ISLANDS.
PLATE 80. GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO.
PLATE 81. FINCHES FROM GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO.
PLATE 82. AMBLYRHYNCHUS CRISTATUS.
PLATE 83. OPUNTIA GALAPAGEIA.
PLATE 84. AVA OR KAVA (Macropiper methysticum), TAHITI.
PLATE 85. EIMEO AND BARRIER-REEF.
PLATE 86. FATAHUA FALL, TAHITI.
PLATE 87. TAHITIAN.
PLATE 88. HIPPAH, NEW ZEALAND.
PLATE 89. SYDNEY, 1835.
PLATE 90. HOBART TOWN AND MOUNT WELLINGTON.
PLATE 91. AUSTRALIAN GROUP OF WEAPONS AND THROWING STICKS.
PLATE 92. INSIDE AN ATOLL, KEELING ISLAND.
PLATE 93. WHITSUNDAY ISLAND.
PLATE 94. BARRIER-REEF, BOLABOLA.
PLATE 95. SECTIONS OF BARRIER-REEFS.
PLATE 96. SECTION OF CORAL-REEF.
PLATE 97. SECTION OF CORAL-REEF.
PLATE 98. BOLABOLA ISLAND.
PLATE 99. CORALS.
PLATE 100. BIRGOS LATRO, KEELING ISLAND.

PLATE 101. ST. LOUIS, MAURITIUS.
PLATE 102. ST. HELENA.
PLATE 103. CELLULAR FORMATION OF VOLCANIC BOMB.
PLATE 104. CICADA HOMOPTERA.
PLATE 105. HOMEWARD BOUND.
PLATE 106. ASCENSION. TERNS AND NODDIES.
PLATE 107. MAP OF SOUTH AMERICA.
PLATE 108. MAP OF THE WORLD, SHOWING THE TRACK OF H.M.S.
"BEAGLE."
...
(PLATE 2. H.M.S. "BEAGLE": MIDDLE SECTION FORE AND AFT, UPPER DECK,
1832.)
(PLATE 3. FERNANDO NORONHA.)

JOURNAL.
CHAPTER I.
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.
ST. JAGO--CAPE DE VERD ISLANDS.

After having been twice driven back by heavy south-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 Patagonia 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 landing, 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 illumine 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 truncate conical hills, and the horizon is bounded by an irregular
chain of more lofty mountains. The scene, as beheld through the hazy atmosphere of this
climate, is one of great interest; if, indeed, a person, fresh from sea, and who has just
walked, for the first time, in a grove of cocoa-nut trees, can be a judge of anything 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 aspect of an utterly sterile
land possesses a grandeur which more vegetation might spoil. A single green leaf can
scarcely be discovered over wide tracts of the lava plains; yet flocks of goats, together
with a few cows, contrive to exist. It rains very seldom, but during a short portion of the
year heavy torrents fall, and immediately afterwards a light vegetation springs out of
every crevice. This soon withers; and upon such naturally formed hay the animals live. It
had not now rained for an entire year. When the island was discovered, the immediate
neighbourhood of Porto Praya was clothed with trees (1/1. I state this on the authority of
Dr. E. Dieffenbach, in his German translation of the first edition of this Journal.), the
reckless destruction of which has caused here, as at St. Helena, and at some of the Canary
islands, almost entire sterility. The broad, flat-bottomed valleys, many of which