The Voyage of the Beagle: Charles Darwin's Journal of Researches Paperback - 1989

Details

• Title The Voyage of the Beagle: Charles Darwin's Journal of Researches
• Author Charles Darwin; Janet Browne (Editor); Introduction by Janet Browne
• Binding Paperback
• Edition Abridged
• Pages 432
• Volumes 1
• Language ENG
• Publisher Penguin Group, London
• Date 1989-11-07
• Illustrated Yes
• ISBN 9780140432688 / 014043268X
• Weight 0.71 lbs (0.32 kg)
• Dimensions 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.8 in (19.81 x 12.95 x 2.03 cm)
• Ages 18 to UP years
• Grade levels 13 - UP
• Reading level 1220
• Library of Congress subjects Geology, Natural history
• Library of Congress Catalog Number 89212506
• Dewey Decimal Code 508.8

GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO

The natural history of this archipelago is very remarkable: it seems to be a little world within itself; the greater number of its inhabitants, both vegetable and animal, being found nowhere else. As I shall refer to this subject again, I will only here remark, as forming a striking character on first landing, that the birds are strangers to man. So tame and unsuspecting were they, that they did not even understand what was meant by stones being thrown at them; and quite regardless of us, they approached so close that any number of them might have been killed with a stick.

The Beagle sailed round Chatham Island, and anchored in several bays. One night I slept on shore, on a part of the island where some black cones – the former chimneys of the subterranean heated fluids – were extraordinarily numerous. From one small eminence, I counted sixty of these truncated hillocks, which were all surmounted by a more or less perfect crater. The greater number consisted merely of a ring of red scoriae, or slags, cemented together: and their height above the plain of lave, was not more than from 50 to 100 feet. From their regular form, they gave the country a workshop appearance, which strongly reminded me of those parts of Stratfordshire where the great iron foundries are most numerous.