Second voyage of HMS Beagle - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The second voyage of HMS Beagle, from 27 December 1831 to 2 October 1836, was the second survey expedition of HMS Beagle

HMS Beagle

HMS Beagle was a Cherokee-class 10-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy. She was launched on 11 May 1820 from the Woolwich Dockyard on the River Thames, at a cost of £7,803. In July of that year she took part in a fleet review celebrating the coronation of King George IV of the United Kingdom in which...

, under captain Robert FitzRoy

Robert FitzRoy

Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy RN achieved lasting fame as the captain of HMS Beagle during Charles Darwin's famous voyage, and as a pioneering meteorologist who made accurate weather forecasting a reality...

who had taken over command of the ship on its first voyage after her previous captain committed suicide. FitzRoy had already thought of the advantages of having an expert in geology

Geology

Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...

on board, and sought a gentleman naturalist

Natural history

Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...

who could be his companion while the ship was at sea. The young graduate Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...

had hoped to see the tropics before becoming a parson

Parson

In the pre-Reformation church, a parson was the priest of an independent parish church, that is, a parish church not under the control of a larger ecclesiastical or monastic organization...

, and accepted the opportunity. By the end of the expedition he had already made his name as a geologist and fossil

Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...

collector, and the publication of his journal which became known as The Voyage of the Beagle

The Voyage of the Beagle

The Voyage of the Beagle is a title commonly given to the book written by Charles Darwin and published in 1839 as his Journal and Remarks, bringing him considerable fame and respect...

gave him wide renown as a writer.

The Beagle sailed across the Atlantic Ocean

Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...

, and then carried out detailed hydrographic survey

Hydrographic survey

Hydrographic survey is the science of measurement and description of features which affect maritime navigation, marine construction, dredging, offshore oil exploration/drilling and related disciplines. Strong emphasis is placed on soundings, shorelines, tides, currents, sea floor and submerged...

s around the coasts of the southern part of South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

, returning via Tahiti

Tahiti

Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of the Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean. It is the economic, cultural and political centre of French Polynesia. The island was formed from volcanic activity and is high and mountainous...

and Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

after having circumnavigated the Earth. While the expedition was originally planned to last two years, it lasted almost five.

Darwin spent most of this time exploring on land: three years and three months on land, 18 months at sea. Early in the voyage he decided that he could write a book about geology, and he showed a gift for theorising. At Punta Alta

Punta Alta

Punta Alta is a city in Argentina, about 20 kilometers southeast of Bahía Blanca. It has a population of 57,296. It is the capital of the Coronel Rosales Partido...

he made a major find of gigantic fossils of extinct mammals, then known from only a very few specimens. He ably collected and made detailed observations of plants and animals, with results that shook his belief that species were fixed and provided the basis for ideas which came to him when back in England, and led to his theory of evolution

Evolution

Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...

by natural selection

Natural selection

Natural selection is the nonrandom process by which biologic traits become either more or less common in a population as a function of differential reproduction of their bearers. It is a key mechanism of evolution....

Aims of the expedition

The main purpose of the expedition was to conduct a hydrographic survey

Hydrographic survey

of the coasts of the southern part of South America

South America

as a continuation of the work of previous surveys. This was to produce nautical chart

Nautical chart

A nautical chart is a graphic representation of a maritime area and adjacent coastal regions. Depending on the scale of the chart, it may show depths of water and heights of land , natural features of the seabed, details of the coastline, navigational hazards, locations of natural and man-made aids...

s showing navigational and sea depth information for naval war or commerce, along with drawings of the hills as seen from the sea showing measured heights of the hills. In particular, the longitude

Longitude

Longitude is a geographic coordinate that specifies the east-west position of a point on the Earth's surface. It is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees, minutes and seconds, and denoted by the Greek letter lambda ....

of Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...

, a starting point for these surveys, was in doubt due to discrepancies in measurements, and an exact longitude was to be found, using calibrated chronometer

Marine chronometer

A marine chronometer is a clock that is precise and accurate enough to be used as a portable time standard; it can therefore be used to determine longitude by means of celestial navigation...

s, and the checking of these measurements through repeated astronomical

Astronomy

Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...

observations. Continuing records of tides and meteorological

Meteorology

Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific study of the atmosphere. Studies in the field stretch back millennia, though significant progress in meteorology did not occur until the 18th century. The 19th century saw breakthroughs occur after observing networks developed across several countries...

conditions were also required.

A lesser priority was given to surveying approaches to harbours on the Falkland Islands

Falkland Islands

The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located about from the coast of mainland South America. The archipelago consists of East Falkland, West Falkland and 776 lesser islands. The capital, Stanley, is on East Falkland...

and, season permitting, the Galápagos Islands

Galápagos Islands

The Galápagos Islands are an archipelago of volcanic islands distributed around the equator in the Pacific Ocean, west of continental Ecuador, of which they are a part.The Galápagos Islands and its surrounding waters form an Ecuadorian province, a national park, and a...

. Then the Beagle was to proceed to Tahiti

Tahiti

and on to Port Jackson

Port Jackson

Port Jackson, containing Sydney Harbour, is the natural harbour of Sydney, Australia. It is known for its beauty, and in particular, as the location of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge...

, Australia

Australia

which were known points to verify the chronometers. An additional requirement was for a geological survey of a circular coral atoll

Atoll

An atoll is a coral island that encircles a lagoon partially or completely.- Usage :The word atoll comes from the Dhivehi word atholhu OED...

in the Pacific ocean

Pacific Ocean

The Pacific Ocean is the largest of the Earth's oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic in the north to the Southern Ocean in the south, bounded by Asia and Australia in the west, and the Americas in the east.At 165.2 million square kilometres in area, this largest division of the World...

including investigation of its profile and of tidal flows.

Context and preparations

The previous survey expedition to South America

South America

involved HMS Adventure
HMS Aid (1809)
HMS Aid was a 10-gun Royal Navy transport ship launched in 1809 at Kings Lynn. She was converted to a survey ship in March 1817, and was renamed HMS Adventure in 1821. The ship was sold in 1853....

and HMS Beagle under the overall command of the Australian Commander Phillip Parker King. During the survey Beagle's captain, Pringle Stokes, committed suicide and command of the ship was given to the young aristocrat Robert FitzRoy

Robert FitzRoy

, a nephew of George FitzRoy, 4th Duke of Grafton

George FitzRoy, 4th Duke of Grafton

George Henry FitzRoy, 4th Duke of Grafton, KG was a British peer and Whig politician, known as Earl of Euston from birth until 1811....

. When a ship's boat was taken by native Fuegians

Fuegians

Fuegians are the indigenous inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego, at the southern tip of South America. In English, the term originally referred to the Yaghan people of Tierra del Fuego...

, FitzRoy took some of them hostage. After their return to Plymouth dockyard

HMNB Devonport

Her Majesty's Naval Base Devonport , is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy . HMNB Devonport is located in Devonport, in the west of the city of Plymouth in Devon, England...

on 14 October 1830 captain King retired.

The 26-year-old FitzRoy had hopes of commanding a second expedition to continue the South American Survey, but when he heard that the Lords of the Admiralty no longer supported this, he grew concerned about how to return the Fuegians who had been taught English with the idea that they could become missionaries. He made an agreement with the owner of a small merchant-vessel to take himself and five others back to South America, but a kind uncle heard of this and contacted the Admiralty. Soon afterwards FitzRoy heard that he was to be appointed commander of HMS Chanticleer
HMS Chanticleer (1808)
HMS Chanticleer was a Cherokee-class 10-gun brig of the Royal Navy. Chanticleer was launched on 26 July 1808. She served in European waters during the Napoleonic Wars and was paid off and laid up at Sheerness in July 1816. She was chosen for an 1828 scientific voyage to the Pacific Ocean...

to go to Tierra del Fuego
Tierra del Fuego
Tierra del Fuego is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of a main island Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego divided between Chile and Argentina with an area of , and a group of smaller islands including Cape...

, but due to her poor condition Beagle was substituted. On 27 June 1831 FitzRoy was commissioned as commander of the voyage, and Lieutenants John Clements Wickham

John Clements Wickham

John Clements Wickham was a naval officer, magistrate and administrator. He was a Lieutenant on HMS Beagle during her second survey mission from 1831 to 1836, which took the young naturalist Charles Darwin on what became the subject of his book, The Voyage of the Beagle...

and Bartholomew James Sulivan

Bartholomew Sulivan

Sir Bartholomew James Sulivan was a British sailor and hydrographer, born at Tregew, Flushing, near Falmouth, Cornwall.He was a leading advocate of the value of nautical surveying in relation to naval operations...

were appointed.

Captain Francis Beaufort

Francis Beaufort

Rear-Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort, FRS, FRGS was an Irish hydrographer and officer in Britain's Royal Navy...

, the Hydrographer of the Admiralty, was invited to decide on the use that could be made of the voyage to continue the survey, and he discussed with FitzRoy plans for a voyage of several years, including a continuation of the trip around the world to establish median distances. The Beagle was commissioned
Ship commissioning
Ship commissioning is the act or ceremony of placing a ship in active service, and may be regarded as a particular application of the general concepts and practices of project commissioning. The term is most commonly applied to the placing of a warship in active duty with its country's military...

on 4 July 1831 under the command of Captain Robert FitzRoy, who promptly spared no expense in having the Beagle extensively refitted. The Beagle was immediately taken into dock for extensive rebuilding and refitting. As she required a new deck, FitzRoy had the upper-deck raised considerably, by 8 inches (200 mm) aft and 12 inches (300 mm) forward. The Cherokee class brig-sloops

Cherokee class brig-sloop

The Cherokee class was a 10-gun class of brig-sloops of the Royal Navy. Brig-sloops are sloops-of-war with two masts rather than the three masts of ship-sloops...

had the reputation of being "coffin brigs", which handled badly and were prone to sinking. By helping the decks to drain more quickly with less water collecting in the gunnel

Gunwale

The gunwale is a nautical term describing the top edge of the side of a boat.Wale is the same word as the skin injury, a wheal, which, too, forms a ridge. Originally the gunwale was the "Gun ridge" on a sailing warship. This represented the strengthening wale or structural band added to the design...

s, the raised deck gave the Beagle better handling and made her less liable to become top-heavy and capsize. Additional sheathing added to the hull added about seven tons to her burthen and perhaps fifteen to her displacement. The ship was one of the first to test the lightning conductor

Lightning rod

A lightning rod or lightning conductor is a metal rod or conductor mounted on top of a building and electrically connected to the ground through a wire, to protect the building in the event of lightning...

invented by William Snow Harris

William Snow Harris

Sir William Snow Harris was an English physician and electrical researcher, nicknamed Thunder-and-Lightning Harris, and noted for his invention of a successful system of lightning conductors for ships...

. FitzRoy ensured there were 22 marine chronometers on board, and five examples of the Sympiesometer

Sympiesometer

A sympiesometer is a compact and lightweight type of barometer that was widely used on ships in the 19th century.The sympiesometer consists of two parts. One is a traditional mercury thermometer that is needed to calculate the expansion or contraction of the fluid in the barometer proper...

, a kind of mercury

Mercury (element)

Mercury is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. It is also known as quicksilver or hydrargyrum...

-free barometer

Barometer

A barometer is a scientific instrument used in meteorology to measure atmospheric pressure. Pressure tendency can forecast short term changes in the weather...

patented by Alexander Adie

Alexander Adie

Alexander James Adie FRSE was a Scottish maker of medical instruments, optician and meteorologist. He was the inventor of the sympiesometer, patented in 1818....

and favoured by FitzRoy as giving the accurate readings required by the Admiralty. He engaged a mathematical instrument maker to maintain the 22 chronometers kept in his cabin

Ship's chronometer from HMS Beagle

A Nautical chronometer made by Thomas Earnshaw , and once part of the equipment of HMS Beagle, the ship that carried Charles Darwin on his voyage around the world, is held in the British Museum...

, as well as engaging the artist/draughtsman Augustus Earle

Augustus Earle

Augustus Earle was a London-born travel artist. Unlike earlier artists who worked outside Europe and were employed on voyages of exploration or worked abroad for wealthy, often aristocratic patrons, Earle was able to operate quite independently - able to combine his lust for travel with an...

to go in a private capacity. The three Fuegians taken on the previous voyage were going to be returned to Tierra del Fuego

Tierra del Fuego

Tierra del Fuego is an archipelago off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan. The archipelago consists of a main island Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego divided between Chile and Argentina with an area of , and a group of smaller islands including Cape...

on the Beagle together with the missionary Richard Matthews.

When investigating islands on the first voyage, FitzRoy had regretted that no-one on board had expertise on mineralogy

Mineralogy

Mineralogy is the study of chemistry, crystal structure, and physical properties of minerals. Specific studies within mineralogy include the processes of mineral origin and formation, classification of minerals, their geographical distribution, as well as their utilization.-History:Early writing...

or geology

Geology

to make use of the opportunity of "ascertaining the nature of the rocks and earths" of the areas they surveyed, and had resolved that if on a similar expedition, he would "endeavour to carry out a person qualified to examine the land; while the officers, and myself, would attend to hydrography." Command in that era could involve stress and loneliness, as shown by the suicide of captain Stokes, and FitzRoy's own uncle Viscount Castlereagh had committed suicide under stress of overwork. For the first time he was fully in charge with no commanding officer or second captain to consult, and he felt the need for a gentleman companion who shared his scientific interests and could dine with him as an equal. He tried to get his friend Harry Chester to come along, but this fell through. It was not unusual for naturalists to be invited on such expeditions as passengers paying their own expenses, and in August 1831 FitzRoy wrote hurriedly to the Admiralty

Admiralty

The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...

, presumably to his friend and superior Captain Beaufort, asking that an appropriate well-educated and scientific gentleman be sought out for this purpose. Beaufort's enquiries via his friend George Peacock at the University of Cambridge

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

were turned down by the Reverend Leonard Jenyns, vicar of Swaffham Bulbeck, and by Professor John Stevens Henslow

John Stevens Henslow

John Stevens Henslow was an English clergyman, botanist and geologist. He is best remembered as friend and mentor to his pupil Charles Darwin.- Early life :...

, who had other commitments. Both recommended the 22 year old Charles Darwin who had just completed the ordinary Bachelor of Arts

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

degree which was a prerequisite for his intended career as a parson

Parson

In the pre-Reformation church, a parson was the priest of an independent parish church, that is, a parish church not under the control of a larger ecclesiastical or monastic organization...

, and was returning from a geology

Geology

field trip with Adam Sedgwick

Adam Sedgwick

Adam Sedgwick was one of the founders of modern geology. He proposed the Devonian period of the geological timescale...

.

Consequently, upon his return home, Darwin received a letter from Henslow describing the position and saying

...that I consider you to be the best qualified person I know of who is likely to undertake such a situation— I state this not on the supposition of yr. being a finished Naturalist, but as amply qualified for collecting, observing, & noting any thing worthy to be noted in Natural History. Peacock has the appointment at his disposal & if he can not find a man willing to take the office, the opportunity will probably be lost— Capt. F. wants a man (I understand) more as a companion than a mere collector & would not take any one however good a Naturalist who was not recommended to him likewise as a gentleman. ... there never was a finer chance for a man of zeal & spirit... Don't put on any modest doubts or fears about your disqualifications for I assure you I think you are the very man they are in search of.

Peacock also wrote, saying that the post was at his "absolute disposal... The Admiralty are not disposed to give a salary, though they will furnish you with an official appointment & every accommodation: if a salary should be required however I am inclined to think that it would be granted". In the event, the appointment was not official. At first Darwin's father rejected the proposal, but was persuaded by his brother in law Josiah Wedgwood II

Josiah Wedgwood II

Josiah Wedgwood II , the son of the English potter Josiah Wedgwood, continued his father's firm and was Member of Parliament for Stoke-upon-Trent from 1832 to 1835...

to relent and fund his son's expedition. Then FitzRoy wrote apologising that he had already promised the place to a friend, but when Darwin arrived for interview FitzRoy told him that the friend had just refused the offer, not five minutes before. The Tory

Tory

Toryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...

FitzRoy was cautious at the prospect of companionship with this unknown young gentleman of Whig

British Whig Party

The Whigs were a party in the Parliament of England, Parliament of Great Britain, and Parliament of the United Kingdom, who contested power with the rival Tories from the 1680s to the 1850s. The Whigs' origin lay in constitutional monarchism and opposition to absolute rule...

background and they spent a week together getting to know each other. Although FitzRoy nearly rejected Darwin on the basis that the shape of Darwin's nose indicated a lack of determination (see physiognomy

Physiognomy

Physiognomy is the assessment of a person's character or personality from their outer appearance, especially the face...

), they found each other agreeable. FitzRoy advised that Darwin's share of costs would be up to £500, and Beaufort confirmed that Darwin would be free to withdraw at any suitable stage and would have control over choosing which "public body" his own collections would be given to.

Darwin was then involved in arranging his own equipment and means for preserving specimens, seeking advice from his old mentor Robert Edmund Grant, amongst others. The geologist Charles Lyell

Charles Lyell

Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, Kt FRS was a British lawyer and the foremost geologist of his day. He is best known as the author of Principles of Geology, which popularised James Hutton's concepts of uniformitarianism – the idea that the earth was shaped by slow-moving forces still in operation...

asked FitzRoy to record observations on geological features such as erratic boulders. Before they left England, FitzRoy gave Darwin a copy of the first volume of Lyell's Principles of Geology which explained features as the outcome of a gradual process taking place over extremely long periods of time. In his autobiography Darwin recalled Henslow giving advice at this time to obtain and study the book, "but on no account to accept the views therein advocated".

Voyage
The Beagle was originally scheduled to leave on 24 October 1831, but because of delays in her preparations the departure was delayed until December. She attempted to depart on 10 December but ran into bad weather. Finally, on the morning of 27 December, the Beagle left its anchorage in the Barn Pool, under Mount Edgecumbe on the west side of Plymouth Sound
Plymouth Sound
Plymouth Sound, or locally just The Sound, is a bay at Plymouth in England.Its southwest and southeast corners are Penlee Point in Cornwall and Wembury Point on Devon, a distance of about 3 nautical miles . Its northern limit is Plymouth Hoe giving a north-south distance of nearly 3 nautical miles...

and set out on its surveying expedition.

FitzRoy envisaged that while he and officers attended to hydrography
Hydrography
Hydrography is the measurement of the depths, the tides and currents of a body of water and establishment of the sea, river or lake bed topography and morphology. Normally and historically for the purpose of charting a body of water for the safe navigation of shipping...

, Darwin should examine the land, providing the expertise on mineralogy
Mineralogy
Mineralogy is the study of chemistry, crystal structure, and physical properties of minerals. Specific studies within mineralogy include the processes of mineral origin and formation, classification of minerals, their geographical distribution, as well as their utilization.-History:Early writing...

or geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...

that FitzRoy had wanted during the first voyage of the Beagle. The captain had to record his survey in painstaking paperwork, and Darwin too kept a daily log as well as detailed notebooks of his finds and speculations, and a diary which became his journal. Darwin's notebooks show a complete professionalism that he had probably learnt at the University of Edinburgh

University of Edinburgh

The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...

when making natural history

Natural history

notes while exploring the shores of the Firth of Forth

Firth of Forth

The Firth of Forth is the estuary or firth of Scotland's River Forth, where it flows into the North Sea, between Fife to the north, and West Lothian, the City of Edinburgh and East Lothian to the south...

with his brother Erasmus in 1826 and studying marine invertebrates with Robert Edmund Grant in 1827.

Geology was Darwin's "principal pursuit" and his notes on that subject were almost four times larger than his zoology notes. During the voyage, he wrote to his sister that "there is nothing like geology; the pleasure of the first days partridge shooting or first days hunting cannot be compared to finding a fine group of fossil bones, which tell their story of former times with almost a living tongue". To him, investigating geology brought reasoning into play and gave him opportunities for theorising.

Although he had studied geology in his second year at Edinburgh he had found it dull, but from Easter to August 1831 he had learned a great deal with Adam Sedgwick

Adam Sedgwick

Adam Sedgwick was one of the founders of modern geology. He proposed the Devonian period of the geological timescale...

and developed a strong interest. His few months of studying small sea creatures with Grant had been remarkably advanced, and at Cambridge he had collected beetles, but he was a novice in all other areas of natural history. He investigated geology and small invertebrates, while collecting specimens of other creatures for experts to examine and describe once the Beagle had returned to England. More than half of his carefully organised zoology notes deal with marine invertebrates, and the notes record closely reasoned interpretations of what he found about their complex internal anatomy while dissecting specimens under his microscope, and of little experiments on their response to stimulation. His observations onshore included intensely analytical comments on possible reasons for the behaviour, distribution and relation with their environment of creatures that he had watched. He made good use of the ship's excellent library of books on natural history, but continually questioned their correctness.

Atlantic islands

The Beagle touched at Madeira

Madeira

Madeira is a Portuguese archipelago that lies between and , just under 400 km north of Tenerife, Canary Islands, in the north Atlantic Ocean and an outermost region of the European Union...

for a confirmed position without stopping, then on 6 January reached Tenerife

Tenerife

Tenerife is the largest and most populous island of the seven Canary Islands, it is also the most populated island of Spain, with a land area of 2,034.38 km² and 906,854 inhabitants, 43% of the total population of the Canary Islands. About five million tourists visit Tenerife each year, the...

in the Canary Islands

Canary Islands

The Canary Islands , also known as the Canaries , is a Spanish archipelago located just off the northwest coast of mainland Africa, 100 km west of the border between Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canaries are a Spanish autonomous community and an outermost region of the European Union...

, but was quarantined there because of cholera

Cholera

Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...

in England. Although tantalisingly near to the town of Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Santa Cruz de Tenerife is the capital , second-most populous city of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands and the 21st largest city in Spain, with a population of 222,417 in 2009...

they were denied landing, to Darwin's intense disappointment. They sailed on in improving weather conditions, and on 10 January Darwin tried out a plankton

Plankton

Plankton are any drifting organisms that inhabit the pelagic zone of oceans, seas, or bodies of fresh water. That is, plankton are defined by their ecological niche rather than phylogenetic or taxonomic classification...

net he had devised to be towed behind the ship, only the second recorded use of a plankton net. Next day, he noted the great number of animals collected far from land and wrote "Many of these creatures so low in the scale of nature are most exquisite in their forms & rich colours. — It creates a feeling of wonder that so much beauty should be apparently created for such little purpose."

Six days later they made their first landing, at Porto Praya

Praia

Praia , is the capital and largest city of Cape Verde, an island nation in the Atlantic Ocean west of Senegal. It lies on the southern coast of Santiago island in the Sotavento Islands group. It is the island's ferry port and is home to one of the nation’s four international airports...

on the volcanic island of St. Jago

Santiago, Cape Verde

Santiago , or Santiagu in Cape Verdean Creole, is the largest island of Cape Verde, its most important agricultural centre and home to half the nation’s population. At the time of Darwin's voyage it was called St. Jago....

in the Cape Verde

Cape Verde

The Republic of Cape Verde is an island country, spanning an archipelago of 10 islands located in the central Atlantic Ocean, 570 kilometres off the coast of Western Africa...

Islands, and it is here that Darwin's description in his published Journal

The Voyage of the Beagle

The Voyage of the Beagle is a title commonly given to the book written by Charles Darwin and published in 1839 as his Journal and Remarks, bringing him considerable fame and respect...

starts. His initial impression was of a desolate and sterile volcanic island, but after visiting the town he came to a deep valley where he "first saw the glory of tropical vegetation" and had "a glorious day", finding overwhelming novelty in the sights and sounds. FitzRoy set up tents and an observatory on Quail Island to determine the exact position of the islands, while Darwin collected numerous sea animals, delighting in vivid tropical corals in tidal pools, and investigated the geology of Quail Island.

Though Daubeny

Charles Daubeny

Charles Giles Bridle Daubeny was an English chemist, botanist and geologist.Daubeny was born at Stratton near Cirencester in Gloucestershire, the son of the Rev. James Daubeny. He studied at Magdalen College, Oxford under Dr. John Kidd...

's book in the Beagles library described the volcanic geology of the Canary Islands, it said that the structure of the Cape Verde Islands was "too imperfectly known". Darwin saw Quail Island as his key to understanding the structure of St. Jago, and made careful studies of its stratigraphy

Stratigraphy

Stratigraphy, a branch of geology, studies rock layers and layering . It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks....

in the way he had learnt from Adam Sedgwick

Adam Sedgwick

Adam Sedgwick was one of the founders of modern geology. He proposed the Devonian period of the geological timescale...

. He collected specimens and described a white layer of hard white rock formed from crushed coral and seashells lying between layers of black volcanic rocks, and noted a similar white layer running horizontally in the black cliffs of St. Jago at 40 feet (12.2 m) above sea level. The seashells were the same as those on the modern beach, and he speculated that in geologically recent times a lava flow had covered this shell sand on the sea bed, then the strata had been slowly raised to their present level. Charles Lyell

Charles Lyell

's Principles of Geology
Principles of Geology
Principles of Geology, being an attempt to explain the former changes of the Earth's surface, by reference to causes now in operation, is a book by the Scottish geologist Charles Lyell....

presented a thesis of gradual rising and falling of the Earth's crust, illustrated by the changing levels of the Temple of Serapis

Macellum of Pozzuoli

The Macellum of Pozzuoli was the macellum or market building of the Roman colony of Puteoli, now known as Pozzuoli. When first excavated in the 18th century, the discovery of a statue of Serapis led to the building being mis-identified as the city's serapeum or Temple of Serapis.A band of borings...

, and Darwin implicitly supported Lyell by remarking that "Dr. Daubeny when mentioning the present state of the temple of Serapis. doubts the possibility of a surface of country being raised without cracking buildings on it. – I feel sure at St Jago in some places a town might have been raised without injuring a house." In a letter to Henslow he wrote that "The geology was preeminently interesting & I believe quite new: there are some facts on a large scale of upraised coast ... that would interest Mr. Lyell. While still on the island, Darwin was inspired to think of writing a book on geology, and later wrote of "seeing a thing never seen by Lyell, one yet saw it partially through his eyes".

Customarily the ship's surgeon took the position of naturalist, and the Beagle's surgeon Robert McCormick

Robert McCormick (explorer)

Robert McCormick was a British Royal Navy surgeon, explorer and naturalist.McCormick was born in Great Yarmouth, England...

sought fame and fortune as an explorer. When they first met at the start of the voyage, Darwin had commented that "My friend [McCormick] is an ass, but we jog on very amicably". They walked into the countryside of St. Jago together, and Darwin, influenced by Lyell, found the surgeon's approach old-fashioned. They found a remarkable baobab

Baobab

Adansonia is a genus of eight species of tree, six native to Madagascar, one native to mainland Africa and the Arabian Peninsula and one to Australia. The mainland African species also occurs on Madagascar, but it is not a native of that island....

tree, which FitRoy measured and sketched. Darwin went on subsequent "riding expeditions" with Benjamin Bynoe and Rowlett to visit Ribeira Grande

Cidade Velha

Cidade Velha , or simplyCidadi in Cape Verdean Creole, is a city located 15 km from Praia on the island of Santiago. It is the oldest settlement in Cape Verde and used to serve as the capital of Cape Verde...

and St Domingo

São Domingos, Cape Verde

São Domingos is a Municipality in Santiago island in Cape Verde. The São Domingos municipality was formed primarily to relieve Praia of the administrative difficulties involved in managing both a large capital city in addition to agrarian villages....

. FitRoy extended their stay to 23 days, to complete his measurements of magnetism

Magnetic anomaly

In geophysics, a magnetic anomaly is a local variation in the Earth's magnetic field resulting from variations in the chemistry or magnetism of the rocks. Mapping of variation over an area is valuable in detecting structures obscured by overlying material...

. Darwin subsequently wrote to Henslow that his collecting included "several specimens of an Octopus, which possessed a most marvellous power of changing its colours; equalling any chamaelion, & evidently accommodating the changes to the colour of the ground which it passed over.—yellowish green, dark brown & red were the prevailing colours: this fact appears to be new, as far as I can find out." Henslow replied that "The fact is not new, but any fresh observations will be highly important."

McCormick increasingly resented the favours FitzRoy gave to assist Darwin with collecting. Half way to Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

, FitzRoy landed a small party including himself and Darwin on St. Paul's rocks

Saint Peter and Paul Rocks

The Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago is a group of 15 small islets and rocks in the central equatorial Atlantic Ocean. It lies in the Intertropical Convergence Zone, a region of severe storms...

, finding the seabirds so tame that they could be killed easily, while an exasperated McCormick was left circling the islets in a second small boat.

Darwin had a special position as guest and social equal of the captain, so junior officers called him "sir" until the captain dubbed Darwin Philos for "ship's philosopher", and this became his suitably respectful nickname.

Surveying South America

The Beagle now carried out its survey work along the coasts of South America, going to and fro to allow careful measurement and rechecking.
Darwin spent much of the time away from the ship, returning by prearrangement when the Beagle returned to ports where mail could be received and Darwin's notes, journals and collections sent back to England. He had ensured that his collections were his own and they were shipped back to Henslow

John Stevens Henslow

John Stevens Henslow was an English clergyman, botanist and geologist. He is best remembered as friend and mentor to his pupil Charles Darwin.- Early life :...

in Cambridge

Cambridge

The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...

to await his return. Several others on board including FitzRoy and other officers were able amateur naturalists, and they gave Darwin generous assistance as well as making collections for the Crown, which the Admiralty

Admiralty

The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...

placed in the British Museum

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...

.

Darwin made long journeys inland with travelling companions from the locality. In Patagonia

Patagonia

Patagonia is a region located in Argentina and Chile, integrating the southernmost section of the Andes mountains to the southwest towards the Pacific ocean and from the east of the cordillera to the valleys it follows south through Colorado River towards Carmen de Patagones in the Atlantic Ocean...

he rode inland with gaucho

Gaucho

Gaucho is a term commonly used to describe residents of the South American pampas, chacos, or Patagonian grasslands, found principally in parts of Argentina, Uruguay, Southern Chile, and Southern Brazil...

s where he saw them use bolas

Bolas

Bolas are a throwing weapon superficially similar to the surujin, made of weights on the ends of interconnected cords, designed to capture animals by entangling their legs...

to bring down "ostriches" (rheas

Rhea (bird)

The rheas are ratites in the genus Rhea, native to South America. There are two existing species: the Greater or American Rhea and the Lesser or Darwin's Rhea. The genus name was given in 1752 by Paul Möhring and adopted as the English common name. Möhring's reason for choosing this name, from the...

), and ate roast armadillo

Armadillo

Armadillos are New World placental mammals, known for having a leathery armor shell. Dasypodidae is the only surviving family in the order Cingulata, part of the superorder Xenarthra along with the anteaters and sloths. The word armadillo is Spanish for "little armored one"...

Tropical paradise and slavery

On 28 February they reached the continent, arriving at the magnificent sight of the town Salvador

Salvador, Bahia

Salvador is the largest city on the northeast coast of Brazil and the capital of the Northeastern Brazilian state of Bahia. Salvador is also known as Brazil's capital of happiness due to its easygoing population and countless popular outdoor parties, including its street carnival. The first...

(Bahia), Brazil

Brazil

, with large ships at harbour scattered across the bay. On the next day, Darwin was in "transports of pleasure" walking by himself in the tropical forest

Bahia coastal forests

The Bahia coastal forests are a tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion of eastern Brazil, part of the larger Atlantic Forest region.-Setting:...

.

He found the sights of slavery offensive and when FitzRoy defended the practice by describing a visit to a slaveowner whose slaves replied "no" on being asked by their master if they wished to be freed, Darwin suggested that answers in such circumstances were worthless. Enraged that his word had been questioned, FitzRoy lost his temper and banned Darwin from his company. The officers had nicknamed such outbursts "hot coffee," and within hours FitzRoy apologised and asked Darwin to remain.

Survey work around the harbour was completed on 18 March, and the ship made its way down the coast to survey the Abrolhos islands

Houtman Abrolhos

The Houtman Abrolhos is a chain of 122 islands, and associated coral reefs, in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia. Nominally located at , it lies about eighty kilometres west of Geraldton, Western Australia...

, then on to Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro

where Darwin took in the sights of the city then made an expedition into the interior. By then Robert McCormick

Robert McCormick (explorer)

Robert McCormick was a British Royal Navy surgeon, explorer and naturalist.McCormick was born in Great Yarmouth, England...

felt "very much disappointed in my expectations of carrying out my natural history pursuits, every obstacle having been placed in the way of my getting on shore and making collections" while the gentleman Darwin received all the invitations from dignitaries onshore and was given facilities to pack his collections. With permission from the admiral in command, McCormick left the ship in April 1832 and returned to England. Assistant Surgeon Benjamin Bynoe was made acting surgeon in his place.

Fossil finds

With the Beagle anchored at Bahía Blanca

Bahía Blanca

Bahía Blanca is a city located in the south-west of the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, by the Atlantic Ocean, and seat of government of Bahía Blanca Partido. It has a population of 274,509 inhabitants according to the...

, Darwin and FitzRoy went for "a very pleasant cruize about the bay" on 22 September 1832, and about ten miles (16 km) from the ship they stopped for a while at Punta Alta

Punta Alta

Punta Alta is a city in Argentina, about 20 kilometers southeast of Bahía Blanca. It has a population of 57,296. It is the capital of the Coronel Rosales Partido...

. In low cliffs near the point Darwin found conglomerate rocks

Conglomerate (geology)

A conglomerate is a rock consisting of individual clasts within a finer-grained matrix that have become cemented together. Conglomerates are sedimentary rocks consisting of rounded fragments and are thus differentiated from breccias, which consist of angular clasts...

containing numerous shells and fossilised teeth and bones of gigantic extinct mammal

Mammal

Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young...

s, in strata near an earth layer with shells and armadillo

Armadillo

fossils, suggesting to him quiet tidal deposits rather than a catastrophe. With assistance (possibly including the young sailor Syms Covington

Syms Covington

Syms Covington was a fiddler and cabin boy on HMS Beagle who became an assistant to Charles Darwin and was appointed as his personal servant in 1833, continuing in Darwin's service after the voyage until 1839. Originally named Simon Covington, he was born in Bedford, Bedfordshire, England, the...

acting as his servant) Darwin collected numerous fossils over several days.

Much of the second day was taken up with excavating a large skull which Darwin found embedded in soft rock, and seemed to him to be allied to the rhinoceros

Rhinoceros

Rhinoceros , also known as rhino, is a group of five extant species of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. Two of these species are native to Africa and three to southern Asia....

. On 8 October he returned to the site, and found a jawbone and tooth which he was able to identify using Bory de Saint-Vincent

Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent

Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent was a French naturalist. He was born at Agen...

's Dictionnaire classique. He wrote home describing this and the large skull as Megatherium
Megatherium
Megatherium was a genus of elephant-sized ground sloths endemic to Central America and South America that lived from the Pliocene through Pleistocene existing approximately...

fossils, or perhaps Megalonyx
Megalonyx
Megalonyx is an extinct genus of giant ground sloths of the family Megalonychidae endemic to North America from the Hemphillian of the Late Miocene through to the Rancholabrean of the Pleistocene, living from ~10.3 Mya—11,000 years ago, existing for approximately .-Taxonomy:The generic name...

, and excitedly noted that the only specimens in Europe were locked away in the King's collection at Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

. In the same layer he found a large surface of polygonal plates of bony armour. His immediate thought was that they came from an enormous armadillo like the small creatures common in the area, but from Cuvier

Georges Cuvier

Georges Chrétien Léopold Dagobert Cuvier or Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric Cuvier , known as Georges Cuvier, was a French naturalist and zoologist...

's misleading description of the Madrid specimen and a recent newspaper report about a fossil found by Woodbine Parish

Woodbine Parish

Sir Woodbine Parish KCH was a British diplomat, traveller and scientist.Educated at Eton College, he took up his first diplomatic post in 1814, and was involved in events immediately following the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo...

, Darwin thought that the bony armour identified the fossil as the Megatherium. With FitzRoy, Darwin went about 30 miles (48 km) across the bay to Monte Hermoso

Monte Hermoso

Monte Hermoso is a town located on the Atlantic coast of Argentina, some east of the city of Bahía Blanca, in the south of the Province of Buenos Aires...

on 19 October, and found numerous fossils of smaller rodent

Rodent

Rodentia is an order of mammals also known as rodents, characterised by two continuously growing incisors in the upper and lower jaws which must be kept short by gnawing....

s in contrast to the huge Edentatal

Xenarthra

The superorder Xenarthra is a group of placental mammals , existent today only in the Americas and represented by anteaters, tree sloths, and armadillos. The origins of the order can be traced back as far as the Paleogene in South America...

mammals of Punta Alta. In November at Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

he "purchased fragments of some enormous bones" which he "was assured belonged to the former giants!!", and subsequently took any chance to get fossils "by gold or galloping".

At Montevideo

Montevideo

Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...

in November the mail from home included a copy of the second volume of Charles Lyell

Charles Lyell

Lamarckism

Lamarckism is the idea that an organism can pass on characteristics that it acquired during its lifetime to its offspring . It is named after the French biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck , who incorporated the action of soft inheritance into his evolutionary theories...

in which there was no shared ancestry of different species or overall progress to match the gradual geological change, but a continuing cycle in which species mysteriously appeared, closely adapted to their "centres of creation", then went extinct when the environment changed to their disadvantage.

Tierra del Fuego

They reached Tierra del Fuego

Tierra del Fuego

on 18 December 1832 and Darwin was taken aback at what he perceived as the crude savagery of the Yaghan

Yaghan

The Yaghan, also called Yagán, Yahgan , Yámana or Yamana, are the indigenous inhabitants of the islands south of Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego extending their presence into Cape Horn...

natives, in stark contrast to the "civilised" behaviour of the three Fuegians

Fuegians

Fuegians are the indigenous inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego, at the southern tip of South America. In English, the term originally referred to the Yaghan people of Tierra del Fuego...

they were returning as missionaries (who had been given the names York Minster, Fuegia Basket and Jemmy Button

Jemmy Button

Orundellico, known as "Jeremy Button" or "Jemmy Button", was a native Fuegian of the Yaghan people from islands around Tierra del Fuego, in modern Chile and Argentina...

). He described his first meeting with the native Fuegians as being "without exception the most curious and interesting spectacle I ever beheld: I could not have believed how wide was the difference between savage and civilised man: it is greater than between a wild and domesticated animal, inasmuch as in man there is a greater power of improvement." In contrast, he said of Jemmy that "It seems yet wonderful to me, when I think over all his many good qualities, that he should have been of the same race, and doubtless partaken of the same character, with the miserable, degraded savages whom we first met here." (Four decades later, in he recalled these impressions in The Descent of Man to support his argument that just as humans had descended from "a lower form", civilised society had arisen by graduations from a more primitive state. He recalled how closely the Fuegians on board the Beagle "resembled us in disposition and in most of our mental faculties.")

At the island of "Buttons Land" on 23 January 1833 they set up a mission post, with huts, gardens, furniture and crockery, but when they returned nine days later the possessions had been looted and divided up equally by the natives. Matthews gave up, rejoining the ship and leaving the three civilised Fuegians to continue the missionary work. The Beagle went on to the Falkland Islands

Falkland Islands

arriving just after the British return. Darwin studied the relationships of species to habitats and found ancient fossils like those he'd found in Wales. Fitzroy bought a schooner

Schooner

A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....

to assist with the surveying, and they returned to Patagonia where this was fitted with a new copper bottom and renamed Adventure. Darwin was assisted by Syms Covington

Syms Covington

in preserving specimens and his collecting was so successful that with FitzRoy's agreement he took on Covington as a full time servant for £30 a year.

Gauchos, Rheas, fossils and geology

The two ships sailed to the Río Negro in Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

and on 8 August 1833 Darwin left on another journey inland with the gaucho

Gaucho

s. On 12 August he met General Juan Manuel de Rosas

Juan Manuel de Rosas

Juan Manuel de Rosas , was an argentine militar and politician, who was elected governor of the province of Buenos Aires in 1829 to 1835, and then of the Argentine Confederation from 1835 until 1852...

who was then leading a punitive expedition

Punitive expedition

A punitive expedition is a military journey undertaken to punish a state or any group of persons outside the borders of the punishing state. It is usually undertaken in response to perceived disobedient or morally wrong behavior, but may be also be a covered revenge...

against native "Indians", and obtained a passport from him. As they crossed the pampas the gauchos and Indians told Darwin of a rare smaller species of rhea

Darwin's Rhea

Darwin's Rhea, Rhea pennata, also known as the Lesser Rhea, is a large flightless bird, but the smaller of the two extant species of rheas. It is found in the Altiplano and Patagonia in South America.-Description:...

. After three days at Bahía Blanca

Bahía Blanca

he grew tired of waiting for the Beagle and on 21 August revisited Punta Alta where he reviewed the geology of the site in light of his new knowledge, wondering if the bones were older than the seashells. He was very successful with searching for bones, and on 1 September found a near complete skeleton with its bones still in position.

He set off again and on 1 October searching the cliffs of the Carcarañá River

Carcarañá River

The Carcarañá River is a river in Argentina. It is born at the confluence of the Río Tercero and the Saladillo River in the south-east of the province of Córdoba and flows eastward into the province of Santa Fe, which it crosses.In Santa Fe the river first turns south, then...

found "an enormous gnawing tooth" then in a cliff of the Paraná River

Paraná River

The Paraná River is a river in south Central South America, running through Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina for some . It is second in length only to the Amazon River among South American rivers. The name Paraná is an abbreviation of the phrase "para rehe onáva", which comes from the Tupi language...

saw "two great groups of immense bones" which were too soft to collect but a tooth fragment identified them as Mastodon

Mastodon

Mastodons were large tusked mammal species of the extinct genus Mammut which inhabited Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and Central America from the Oligocene through Pleistocene, 33.9 mya to 11,000 years ago. The American mastodon is the most recent and best known species of the group...

s. Illness delayed him at Santa Fe

Santa Fe, Argentina

Santa Fe is the capital city of province of Santa Fe, Argentina. It sits in northeastern Argentina, near the junction of the Paraná and Salado rivers. It lies opposite the city of Paraná, to which it is linked by the Hernandarias Subfluvial Tunnel. The city is also connected by canal with the...

, and after seeing the fossilised casing of a huge armadillo

Armadillo

embedded in rock, he was puzzled to find a horse tooth in the same rock layer, since horses had been introduced to the continent with European migration. They took a riverboat down the Paraná River to Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

but became entangled in a revolution as rebels allied to Rosas blockaded the city. The passport helped and with Covington he managed to escape in a boatload of refugees. They rejoined the Beagle at Montevideo

Montevideo

.

As surveys were still in progress Darwin set off on another 400 mile (600 km) "galloping" trip in Banda Oriental

Uruguay

Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...

to see the Uruguay River

Uruguay River

The Uruguay River is a river in South America. It flows from north to south and makes boundary with Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay, separating some of the Argentine provinces of the Mesopotamia from the other two countries...

and visit the Estancia of Mr Keen near Mercedes

Mercedes, Uruguay

Mercedes is the capital and largest city of the department of Soriano in Uruguay. It is located on the junction of Route 2 with Route 14, and is situated on the south bank of the Río Negro. Also Route 21 from Colonia del Sacramento of Colonia Department terminates in this city.Mercedes is an...

on the Río Negro

Río Negro (Uruguay)

The Río Negro is the most important river in Uruguay. It originates in the southern highlands of Brazil, just east of Bagé, and flows west across the entire width of Uruguay to the Uruguay River. The course of the Río Negro across Uruguay effectively divides the south of the country from the north...

. On 25 November he "heard of some giants bones, which as usual turned out to be those of the Megatherium" but could only extract a few broken fragments, then on the next day visited a nearby house and bought for about two shilling

Shilling

The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...

s "a head of a Megatherium which must have been when found quite perfect", though the teeth had since been broken and the lower jaw had been lost. Mr Keen arranged to ship the skull down river to Buenos Aires. At Las Piedras

Las Piedras, Uruguay

Las Piedras is a city in the Canelones Department of Uruguay. It is located on the east side of Route 5, north of the border with Montevideo Department. Bordering La Paz to the south and Montevideo to the southeast, it belongs to the wider metropolitan area of Montevideo...

a clergyman let him see fossils including a club-like tail which he sketched and called an "extraordinary weapon". His notes included a page showing his realisation that the cliff banks of the rivers exposed two strata formed in an estuary

Estuary

An estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea....

interrupted by an undersea stratum, indicating that the land had risen and fallen.

Back at Montevideo, Darwin was introduced to Conrad Martens

Conrad Martens

Conrad Martens was an English-born landscape painter active in Australia from 1835.-Life and work:Conrad Martens' father was a merchant who came originally to London as Austrian Consul; Conrad was born in "Crutched Friars" near Tower Hill...

, the replacement artist brought on board the Beagle after Augustus Earle had to leave due to health problems. They sailed south, putting in at Port Desire

Puerto Deseado

Puerto Deseado, originally called Port Desire, is a city of about 15,000 inhabitants and a fishing port in Patagonia in Santa Cruz Province of Argentina, on the estuary of the Deseado River....

on 23 December, and the following day Darwin shot a guanaco which provided them with a Christmas meal. Early in the new year, Martens shot a rhea which they enjoyed eating before Darwin realised that this was the elusive smaller rhea, and preserved the remains. On 9 January 1834, 110 miles (180 km) further south, they reached Port St Julian

Puerto San Julián

Puerto San Julián, also known historically as Port St Julian, is a natural harbour in Patagonia in the Santa Cruz Province of Argentina located at . In the days of sailing ships it formed a stopping point, south of Puerto Deseado...

and exploring the local geology in cliffs near the harbour Darwin found fossils of pieces of spine and a hind leg of "some large animal, I fancy a Mastodon". On 26 January they entered the Straits of Magellan and at St. Gregory's Bay they met half-civilised Patagonian "giants" over 6 ft (1.8 m) tall, described by Darwin as "excellent practical naturalists". One told him that the smaller rheas were the only species this far south, while the larger rheas kept to the north, the species meeting around the Rio Negro.

After further surveying in Tierra del Fuego they returned on 5 March 1834 to visit the missionaries, but found the huts deserted. Then canoes approached and they found that one of the natives was Jemmy Button

Jemmy Button

Orundellico, known as "Jeremy Button" or "Jemmy Button", was a native Fuegian of the Yaghan people from islands around Tierra del Fuego, in modern Chile and Argentina...

, who had lost his possessions and had settled into the native ways, taking a wife. Darwin had never seen "so complete & grievous a change". Jemmy came on board and dined using his cutlery properly, speaking English as well as ever, then assured them that he "had not the least wish to return to England" and was "happy and contented", leaving them gifts of otter skins and arrowheads before returning to the canoe to join his wife. Of the first visit Darwin had written that "Viewing such men, one can hardly make oneself believe that they are fellow creatures placed in the same world. .... It is a common subject of conjecture; what pleasure in life some of the less gifted animals can enjoy? How much more reasonably it may be asked with respect to these men", yet Jemmy had readily adapted to civilisation and then chosen to return to his primitive ways. This raised awkward questions; it jarred with Charles Lyell

Charles Lyell

's sheltered views, expressed in volume 2 of his Principles of Geology
Principles of Geology
Principles of Geology, being an attempt to explain the former changes of the Earth's surface, by reference to causes now in operation, is a book by the Scottish geologist Charles Lyell....

, that human races "showed only a slight deviation from a common standard", and that acceptance of transmutation meant renouncing man's "belief in the high genealogy of his species".

About this time Darwin wrote Reflection on reading my Geological notes, the first of a series of essays included in his notes. He speculated on possible causes of the land repeatedly being raised, and on a history of life in Patagonia as a sequence of named species.

They returned to the Falkland Islands on 16 March just after an incident where gauchos and Indians had butchered senior members of Vernet's settlement, and helped to put the revolt down. Darwin noted the immense number of organisms dependent on the kelp forest

Kelp forest

Kelp forests are underwater areas with a high density of kelp. They are recognized as one of the most productive and dynamic ecosystems on Earth. Smaller areas of anchored kelp are called kelp beds....

s. He received word from Henslow

John Stevens Henslow

John Stevens Henslow was an English clergyman, botanist and geologist. He is best remembered as friend and mentor to his pupil Charles Darwin.- Early life :...

that his first dispatch of specimens had reached Cambridge, with the South American fossils being prized by the expert William Clift

William Clift

William Clift, , British naturalist, born at Burcombe, about half a mile from the town of Bodmin in Cornwall, on 14 Feb. 1775, was the youngest of the seven children of Robert Clift, who died a few years later, leaving his wife and family in the depths of poverty.-Education:The boy was sent to...

as showing hitherto unknown species and features of the Megatherium, and displayed by William Buckland

William Buckland

The Very Rev. Dr William Buckland DD FRS was an English geologist, palaeontologist and Dean of Westminster, who wrote the first full account of a fossil dinosaur, which he named Megalosaurus...

and Clift before the cream of British science, making Darwin's reputation.

The Beagle now sailed to southern Patagonia, and on 19 April an expedition including FitzRoy and Darwin set off to take boats as far as possible up the Santa Cruz river

Santa Cruz River (Argentina)

Santa Cruz River is a river from the Argentine province of Santa Cruz.The Santa Cruz begins at the shore of the Viedma and Argentino Lakes, of glacial origin and located in the Los Glaciares National Park, and runs eastwards before reaching the Atlantic Coast, north of the southern tip of South...

, with all involved taking turn in teams dragging the boats upstream. The river cut through a series of rises then plateaux forming wide plains covered with shells and shingle, and Darwin discussed with FitzRoy his interpretation that these terraces had been shores that had gradually raised in accordance with Lyell's theories. Several of the smaller rheas were seen in the distance, but were too elusive to catch. The expedition approached the Andes but had to turn back.

Darwin summarised his speculation in his essay on the Elevation of Patagonia. Though tentative, it challenged Lyell's ideas. Darwin drew on measurements by the Beagle's officers as well as his own measurements to propose that the plains had been raised in successive stages by forces acting over a wide area, rather than smaller scale actions in a continuous movement. However, he supported Lyell in finding evidence to dismiss a sudden deluge when normal processes were suddenly speeded. Seashells he had found far inland still showing their colour suggested to him that the process had been relatively recent, and could have affected human history.

West coast of South America

The Beagle and Adventure now surveyed the Straits of Magellan before sailing north round up the west coast, reaching the island of Chiloé

Chiloé Island

Chiloé Island , also known as Greater Island of Chiloé , is the largest island of the Chiloé Archipelago off the coast of Chile, in the Pacific Ocean...

in the wet and heavily wooded Chonos Archipelago on 28 June 1834. They then spent the next six months surveying the coast and islands southwards.

They arrived at Valparaiso

Valparaíso

Valparaíso is a city and commune of Chile, center of its third largest conurbation and one of the country's most important seaports and an increasing cultural center in the Southwest Pacific hemisphere. The city is the capital of the Valparaíso Province and the Valparaíso Region...

on 23 July. After several walks in the area, Darwin obtained horses and on 14 August set off up the volcanic Andes

Andes

The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...

with a companion. Three days later they spent an enjoyable day on the summit of the Bell mountain

Cerro La Campana

Cerro la Campana, the Bell mountain, is a mountain in La Campana National Park in central Chile.The Pacific and the mountain Aconcagua are visible from the summit on clear days....

. Darwin visited a copper mine and spent five days scrambling in the mountains before going on to Santiago, Chile

Santiago, Chile

Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...

. On his way back, he fell ill on 20 September and had to spend a month in bed. It is possible that he contracted Chagas' disease here, leading to Charles Darwin's illness

Charles Darwin's illness

For much of his adult life, Charles Darwin's health was repeatedly compromised by an uncommon combination of symptoms, leaving him severely debilitated for long periods of time...

after his return, but this diagnosis of his symptoms is disputed. He learnt that the Admiralty had reprimanded FitzRoy for buying the Adventure. FitzRoy had taken it badly, selling the ship and announcing they would go back to recheck his survey, then had resigned his command doubting his sanity, but was persuaded by his officers to withdraw his resignation and proceed. The artist Conrad Martens

Conrad Martens

left the ship and took passage to Australia.

After waiting for Darwin, the Beagle sailed on 11 November to survey the Chonos Archipelago. From here they saw the eruption of the volcano Osorno

Osorno, Chile

Osorno is a city and commune in southern Chile and capital of Osorno Province in the Los Lagos Region. It had a population of 145,475, as of the 2002 census...

in the Andes. They sailed north, and Darwin wondered about the fossils he had found. The giant Mastodon

Mastodon

s and Megatherium

Megatherium

Megatherium was a genus of elephant-sized ground sloths endemic to Central America and South America that lived from the Pliocene through Pleistocene existing approximately...

s were extinct, but he had found no geological signs of a "diluvial debacle

Catastrophism

Catastrophism is the theory that the Earth has been affected in the past by sudden, short-lived, violent events, possibly worldwide in scope. The dominant paradigm of modern geology is uniformitarianism , in which slow incremental changes, such as erosion, create the Earth's appearance...

" or of the changed circumstances that, in Lyell's view, led to species no longer being adapted to the position they were created to fit. He agreed with Lyell's idea of "the gradual birth & death of species" but, unlike Lyell, Darwin was willing to believe Giovanni Battista Brocchi

Giovanni Battista Brocchi

Giovanni Battista Brocchi was an Italian naturalist, mineralogist and geologist.He was born in Bassano del Grappa, Italy, and studied jurisprudence at the University of Padova, but his attention was turned to mineralogy and botany...

's idea that extinct species had somehow aged and died out.
They arrived at the port of Valdivia

Valdivia, Chile

Valdivia is a city and commune in southern Chile administered by the Municipality of Valdivia. The city is named after its founder Pedro de Valdivia and is located at the confluence of the Calle-Calle, Valdivia and Cau-Cau Rivers, approximately east of the coastal towns of Corral and Niebla...

on 8 February 1835, then twelve days later Darwin was on shore when he experienced a severe earthquake and returned to find the port town badly damaged. They sailed two hundred miles (320 km) north to Concepción, Chile

Concepción, Chile

Concepción is a city in Chile, capital of Concepción Province and of the Biobío Region or Region VIII. Greater Concepción is the second-largest conurbation in the country, with 889,725 inhabitants...

, and arrived on 4 March to find that the same earthquake had devastated the city by repeated shocks and a tidal wave, with even the cathedral in ruins. Darwin noted the horrors of death and destruction, and FitzRoy carefully established that mussel

Mussel

The common name mussel is used for members of several families of clams or bivalvia mollusca, from saltwater and freshwater habitats. These groups have in common a shell whose outline is elongated and asymmetrical compared with other edible clams, which are often more or less rounded or oval.The...

beds were now above high tide, giving clear evidence of the ground rising some 9 ft (2.7 m) which he confirmed a month later. They had actually experienced the gradual process of the continent emerging from the ocean as Lyell had indicated.

Back in Valparaiso, Darwin set out on another trek up the Andes and on 21 March reached the continental divide at 13,000 ft (4,000 m): even here he found fossil seashells in the rocks. He felt the glorious view "was like watching a thunderstorm, or hearing in the full Orchestra a Chorus of the Messiah." After going on to Mendoza

Mendoza, Argentina

Mendoza is the capital city of Mendoza Province, in Argentina. It is located in the northern-central part of the province, in a region of foothills and high plains, on the eastern side of the Andes. As of the , Mendoza's population was 110,993...

they were returning by a different pass when they found a petrified forest of fossilised trees, crystallised in a sandstone escarpment showing him that they had been on a Pacific beach when the land sank, burying them in sand which had been compressed into rock, then had gradually been raised with the continent to stand at 7,000 ft (2,100 m) in the mountains. On returning to Valparaiso with half a mule's load of specimens he wrote to his father that his findings, if accepted, would be crucial to the theory of the formation of the world. After another gruelling expedition in the Andes while the Beagle was refitted he rejoined it and sailed to Lima

Lima

Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...

, but found an armed insurrection in progress and had to stay with the ship. Here he was writing up his notes when he realised that Lyell's idea that coral atolls were on the rims of rising extinct volcanoes made less sense than the volcanoes gradually sinking so that the coral reefs around the island kept building themselves close to sea level and became an atoll as the volcano disappeared below. This was a theory he would examine when they reached such islands.

Galápagos Islands

A week out of Lima, the Beagle reached the Galápagos Islands

Galápagos Islands

on 15 September 1835. The next day Captain FitzRoy dropped anchor near the site of the modern town of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno

Puerto Baquerizo Moreno

Puerto Baquerizo Morno is the capital of the Galápagos Province, in Ecuador. It is located along the southwestern coast of San Cristóbal, the easternmost island in the archipelago....

on Chatham Island

San Cristóbal Island

San Cristóbal is the easternmost island in the Galápagos archipelago, and one of the oldest geologically.Its Spanish name "San Cristóbal" comes from the patron saint of seafarers, St. Christopher...

. At the location that is now known as Frigatebird Hill/Cerro Tijeretas, Darwin spent his first hour on shore in the Galapagos islands.

Darwin eagerly looked forward to seeing newly formed volcanic islands, and took every opportunity to go ashore while the Beagle was methodically moved round to chart the coast. He found broken black rocky volcanic lava scorching under the hot sun, and made detailed geological notes of features including volcanic cone

Volcanic cone

Volcanic cones are among the simplest volcanic formations. They are built by ejecta from a volcanic vent, piling up around the vent in the shape of a cone with a central crater. Volcanic cones are of different types, depending upon the nature and size of the fragments ejected during the eruption...

s like chimneys which reminded him of the iron foundries of industrial Staffordshire

Staffordshire

Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...

. His hopes of seeing active volcanoes and of finding strata showing uplift were disappointed, though one of the officers found broken oyster-shells high above the sea on one of the islands. Abundant giant Galápagos tortoise

Galápagos tortoise

The Galápagos tortoise or Galápagos giant tortoise is the largest living species of tortoise, reaching weights of over and lengths of over . With life spans in the wild of over 100 years, it is one of the longest-lived vertebrates...

s appeared to him almost antediluvian

Antediluvian

The antediluvian period meaning "before the deluge" is the period referred to in the Bible between the Creation of the Earth and the Deluge . The narrative takes up chapters 1-6 of Genesis...

, and large black marine iguana

Marine iguana

The Marine Iguana is an iguana found only on the Galápagos Islands that has the ability, unique among modern lizards, to live and forage in the sea, making it a marine reptile. The Iguana can dive over 30 ft into the water. It has spread to all the islands in the archipelago, and is...

s seemed "most disgusting, clumsy Lizards" well suited to their habitat – he noted that someone had called them "imps of darkness". Darwin had learnt from Henslow

John Stevens Henslow

John Stevens Henslow was an English clergyman, botanist and geologist. He is best remembered as friend and mentor to his pupil Charles Darwin.- Early life :...

about studying the geographical distribution of species, and particularly of linked species on oceanic islands and on nearby continents, so he endeavoured to collect plants in flower. He found widespread "wretched-looking" thin scrub thickets of only ten species, and very few insects. Birds were remarkably unafraid of humans, and in his first field note he recorded that a mockingbird

San Cristobal Mockingbird

The San Cristobal Mockingbird or Chatham Mockingbird is a species of bird in the Mimidae family. It is endemic to San Cristóbal Island in the Galápagos Islands of Ecuador....

was similar to those he had seen on the continent.

The Beagle sailed on to Charles Island

Floreana Island

Floreana Island is an island of the Galápagos Islands. It was named after Juan José Flores, the first president of Ecuador, during whose administration the government of Ecuador took possession of the archipelago, having previously been called Charles Island...

. By chance they were greeted by the Englishman Nicolas Lawson, acting Governor of Galápagos for the Republic of the Equator

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

, who accompanied them up to the penal colony

Penal colony

A penal colony is a settlement used to exile prisoners and separate them from the general populace by placing them in a remote location, often an island or distant colonial territory...

. It was said that tortoises differed in the shape of the shells from island to island, and Darwin noted Lawson's statement that on seeing a tortoise he could "pronounce with certainty from which island it has been brought". Though Darwin remembered this later, he did not pay much attention at the time. However, he found a mockingbird

Floreana Mockingbird

The Floreana Mockingbird or Charles Mockingbird is a bird species in the family Mimidae.It is endemic to Floreana, one of the Galápagos Islands of Ecuador; at present it only occurs on offshore islets however...

and "fortunately happened to observe" that it differed from the Chatham Island specimen, so from then on carefully noted where mockingbirds had been caught. He industriously collected all the animals, plants, insects & reptiles, and speculated about finding "from future comparison to what district or 'centre of creation' the organized beings of this archipelago must be attached." At this stage his thoughts reflected Lyell's rejection of transmutation of species

Transmutation of species

Transmutation of species was a term used by Jean Baptiste Lamarck in 1809 for his theory that described the altering of one species into another, and the term is often used to describe 19th century evolutionary ideas that preceded Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection...

.

They went on to Albemarle Island

Isabela Island (Ecuador)

Isabela Island is the largest island of the Galápagos with an area of , and length of nearly 4 times larger than Santa Cruz, the next largest of the islands. This island was named in honor of Queen Isabella of Spain, who sponsored the voyage of Columbus. . By the English, it was named Albemarle...

, where Darwin saw a small jet of smoke from a recently active volcano. On 1 October he landed near Tagus Cove and explored Beagle Crater. There he saw his first Galapagos Land Iguana

Galapagos Land Iguana

The Galapagos Land Iguana is a species of lizard in the Iguanidae family. It is one of three species of the genus Conolophus...

s. Water pits were disappointingly inadequate for drinking, but attracted swarms of small birds and Darwin made his only note of the finches

Darwin's finches

Darwin's finches are a group of 14 or 15 species of passerine birds. It is still not clear which bird family they belong to, but they are not related to the true finches. They were first collected by Charles Darwin on the Galápagos Islands during the second voyage of the Beagle...

he was not bothering to label by island. He caught a third species of Mockingbird

Galápagos Mockingbird

The Galápagos Mockingbird is a species of bird in the Mimidae family. It is endemic to the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador.-Description:...

.

After passing the northern islands of Abingdon

Pinta Island

Pinta Island is an island located in the Galapagos Islands group, Ecuador. It has an area of 60 km² and a maximum altitude of 777 meters....

, Tower

Genovesa Island

Genovesa Island is a shield volcano in the Galápagos Islands in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The island occupies about , and its maximum elevation is . The horse-shoe shaped island has a volcanic caldera whose wall has collapsed, forming the Great Darwin Bay, surrounded by cliffs...

and Bindloe

Marchena Island

Named after Fray Antonio Marchena, Marchena Island has an area of 130 km² and a maximum altitude of 343 meters.There aren't any visitor's sites on this island, although it is possible to dive in the waters around Marchena on organised tours....

, Darwin was put ashore at James Island

Santiago Island (Galápagos)

Santiago Island is an island of the Galápagos Islands. It is also known as San Salvador, named after the first island discovered by Columbus in the Caribbean Sea , or as James Island. The island, which consists of two overlapping volcanoes, has an area of 585 km² and a maximum altitude of...

for nine days together with the surgeon Benjamin Bynoe and their servants, and they busily collected all sorts of specimens while the Beagle went back to Chatham Island for fresh water.

After further surveying, the Beagle set sail for Tahiti on 20 October 1835. Darwin wrote up his notes, and to his astonishment found that all the mockingbirds caught on Charles, Albemarle, James and Chatham Islands differed from island to island. He wrote "This birds which is so closely allied to the Thenca of Chili (Callandra of B. Ayres) is singular from existing as varieties or distinct species in the different Isds.— I have four specimens from as many Isds.— These will be found to be 2 or 3 varieties.— Each variety is constant in its own Island....".

Tahiti to Australia

They sailed on, dining on Galapagos tortoises, and passed the atoll

Atoll

An atoll is a coral island that encircles a lagoon partially or completely.- Usage :The word atoll comes from the Dhivehi word atholhu OED...

of Honden Island

Puka-Puka

Puka-Puka is a small coral atoll in the north-eastern Tuamotu Archipelago, sometimes included as a member of the Disappointment Islands. This atoll is quite isolated, the nearest land being Fakahina, located 182 km to the southwest....

on 9 November. They passed through the Low Islands

Tuamotus

The Tuamotus or the Tuamotu Archipelago are a chain of islands and atolls in French Polynesia. They form the largest chain of atolls in the world, spanning an area of the Pacific Ocean roughly the size of Western Europe...

archipelago, with Darwin remarking that they had "a very uninteresting appearance; a long brilliantly white beach is capped by a low bright line of green vegetation." Arriving at Tahiti

Tahiti

on 15 November he soon found interest in luxuriant vegetation and the pleasant intelligent natives who showed the benefits of Christianity, refuting allegations he had read about tyrannical missionaries overturning indigenous cultures.

On 19 December they reached New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

where Darwin thought the tattooed Māori to be savages with character of a much lower order than the Tahitians, and noted that they and their homes were "filthily dirty and offensive". He saw missionaries bringing improvement in character as well as new farming practices with an exemplary "English farm" employing natives. Richard Matthews was left here with his elder brother Joseph Matthews who was a missionary at Kaitaia

Kaitaia

Kaitaia is a town in the far north region of New Zealand, at the base of the Aupouri Peninsula which is about 160 km northwest of Whangarei. It is the last major settlement on the main road north to the capes and bays on the peninsula...

. Darwin and FitzRoy were agreed that missionaries had been unfairly misrepresented in tracts, particularly one written by the artist Augustus Earle

Augustus Earle

which he had left on the ship. Darwin also noted many English residents of the most worthless character, including runaway convicts from New South Wales

New South Wales

New South Wales is a state of :Australia, located in the east of the country. It is bordered by Queensland, Victoria and South Australia to the north, south and west respectively. To the east, the state is bordered by the Tasman Sea, which forms part of the Pacific Ocean. New South Wales...

. By 30 December he was glad to leave New Zealand.

The first sight of Australia

Australia

on 12 January 1836 reminded him of Patagonia, but inland the country improved and he was soon filled with admiration at the bustling city of Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

. On a journey into the interior he came across a group of aborigines who looked "good-humoured & pleasant & they appeared far from such utterly degraded beings as usually represented". They gave him a display of spear throwing for a shilling, and he reflected sadly on how their numbers were rapidly decreasing. At a large sheep farm he joined a hunting party and caught his first marsupial, a "potoroo" (rat-kangaroo). Reflecting on the strange animals of the country, he thought that an unbeliever "might exclaim 'Surely two distinct Creators must have been [at] work; their object however has been the same & certainly the end in each case is complete'," yet an antlion

Antlion

Antlions are a group of insects in the family Myrmeleontidae . The most well-known genus is Myrmeleo. There are about 2,000 species...

he was watching was very similar to its European counterpart. That evening he saw the even stranger platypus

Platypus

The platypus is a semi-aquatic mammal endemic to eastern Australia, including Tasmania. Together with the four species of echidna, it is one of the five extant species of monotremes, the only mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young...

and noticed that its bill was soft, unlike the preserved specimens he had seen. Aboriginal stories that they laid eggs were believed by few Europeans.

The Beagle visited Hobart

Hobart

Hobart is the state capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Founded in 1804 as a penal colony,Hobart is Australia's second oldest capital city after Sydney. In 2009, the city had a greater area population of approximately 212,019. A resident of Hobart is known as...

, Tasmania

Tasmania

Tasmania is an Australian island and state. It is south of the continent, separated by Bass Strait. The state includes the island of Tasmania—the 26th largest island in the world—and the surrounding islands. The state has a population of 507,626 , of whom almost half reside in the greater Hobart...

, where Darwin was impressed by the agreeable high society of the settlers, but noted that the island's "Aboriginal blacks are all removed & kept (in reality as prisoners) in a Promontory, the neck of which is guarded. I believe it was not possible to avoid this cruel step; although without doubt the misconduct of the Whites first led to the Necessity." They then sailed to King George's Sound

King George Sound

King George Sound is the name of a sound on the south coast of Western Australia. Located at , it is the site of the city of Albany.The sound covers an area of and varies in depth from to ....

in south west Australia, a dismal settlement then being replaced by the Swan River Colony

Swan River Colony

The Swan River Colony was a British settlement established in 1829 on the Swan River, in Western Australia. The name was a pars pro toto for Western Australia. In 1832, the colony was officially renamed Western Australia, when the colony's founding Lieutenant-Governor, Captain James Stirling,...

. Darwin was impressed by the "good disposition of the aboriginal blacks... Although true Savages, it is impossible not to feel an inclination to like such quiet good-natured men." He provided boiled rice for an aboriginal "Corrobery

Corroboree

A corroboree is a ceremonial meeting of Australian Aborigines. The word was coined by the European settlers of Australia in imitation of the Aboriginal word caribberie. At a corroboree Aborigines interact with the Dreamtime through dance, music and costume. Many ceremonies act out events from the...

" dancing party performed by the men of two tribes to the great pleasure of the women and children, a "most rude barbarous scene" in which everyone appeared in high spirits, "all moving in hideous harmony" and "perfectly at their ease". The Beagle's departure in a storm was delayed when she ran aground. She was refloated and got on her way.

Keeling Island homewards

FitzRoy's instructions from the Admiralty

Admiralty

The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...

required a detailed geological survey of a circular coral

Coral

Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.A coral "head" is a colony of...

atoll

Atoll

An atoll is a coral island that encircles a lagoon partially or completely.- Usage :The word atoll comes from the Dhivehi word atholhu OED...

to investigate how coral reef

Coral reef

Coral reefs are underwater structures made from calcium carbonate secreted by corals. Coral reefs are colonies of tiny living animals found in marine waters that contain few nutrients. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, which in turn consist of polyps that cluster in groups. The polyps...

s formed, particularly whether they rose from the bottom of the sea or from the summits of extinct volcanoes, and the effects of tide

Tide

Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the moon and the sun and the rotation of the Earth....

s measured with specially constructed gauges. He chose the Keeling Islands

Cocos (Keeling) Islands

The Territory of the Cocos Islands, also called Cocos Islands and Keeling Islands, is a territory of Australia, located in the Indian Ocean, southwest of Christmas Island and approximately midway between Australia and Sri Lanka....

in the Indian Ocean

Indian Ocean

The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...

, and on arrival on 1 April the entire crew set to work. Darwin found a coconut economy, serving both the small settlement and wildlife. There was a limited range of native plants and no land birds, but hermit crab

Hermit crab

Hermit crabs are decapod crustaceans of the superfamily Paguroidea. Most of the 1100 species possess an asymmetrical abdomen which is concealed in an empty gastropod shell that is carried around by the hermit crab.-Description:...

s everywhere. The lagoons teemed with a rich variety of invertebrates and fishes, and he examined the atoll's structure in view of the theory he had developed in Lima, of encircling reefs becoming atolls as an island sank. This idea was supported by the numerous soundings

Sounding line

A sounding line or lead line is a length of thin rope with a plummet, generally of lead, at its end. Regardless of the actual composition of the plummet, it is still called a "lead."...

FitzRoy had taken showing a steep slope outside the reef with no living corals below 20–30 fathom

Fathom

A fathom is a unit of length in the imperial and the U.S. customary systems, used especially for measuring the depth of water.There are 2 yards in an imperial or U.S. fathom...

s (10–15 m).

Arriving at Mauritius

Mauritius

Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...

on 29 April 1836, Darwin was impressed by the civilised prosperity of the French colony which had come under British rule. He toured the island, examining its volcanic mountains and fringing coral reefs. The Surveyor-general Captain Lloyd took him on the only elephant on the island to see an elevated coral plain. By then FitzRoy was writing the official Narrative of the Beagle voyages, and after reading Darwin’s diary he proposed incorporating it into the account, a suggestion Darwin discussed with his family.

The Beagle reached the Cape of Good Hope

Cape of Good Hope

The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...

on 31 May. In Cape Town

Cape Town

Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...

Darwin received a letter dated 29 December from his sister Caroline telling him that his fame was spreading. Henslow had told their father that Darwin would become one of the premier naturalists, and had printed for private distribution a book of extracts of Darwin's letters on South American geology. A reading of these extracts by Sedgwick had been announced in The Athenæum
Athenaeum (magazine)
The Athenaeum was a literary magazine published in London from 1828 to 1921. It had a reputation for publishing the very best writers of the age....

. Darwin was horrified that his careless words were in print, but No hay remedio (can't be helped). He explored the geology of the area, reaching conclusions about slate formation and the injection of granite seams as liquid which differed from the ideas of Lyell and Sedgwick. The zoologist Andrew Smith

Andrew Smith (zoologist)

Sir Andrew Smith KCB was a Scottish surgeon, explorer, ethnologist and zoologist. He is considered the father of Zoology in South Africa having described many species across a wide range of groups in his major work, Illustrations of the Zoology of South Africa.Smith was born in Hawick, Roxburghshire...

showed him formations, and later discussed the large animals living on sparse vegetation, showing that a lack of luxuriant vegetation did not explain the extinction of the giant creatures in South America.

Around 15 June Darwin and FitzRoy visited the noted astronomer Sir John Herschel

John Herschel

Sir John Frederick William Herschel, 1st Baronet KH, FRS ,was an English mathematician, astronomer, chemist, and experimental photographer/inventor, who in some years also did valuable botanical work...

. In his diary Darwin called this "the most memorable event which, for a long period, I have had the good fortune to enjoy." His zeal for science had been stirred at Cambridge by reading Herschel's book on philosophy of science, which had guided his theorising during the voyage. Their discussion is not recorded, but a few months earlier, on 20 February 1836, Herschel had written to Lyell praising his Principles of Geology as a work which would bring "a complete revolution in [its] subject, by altering entirely the point of view in which it must thenceforward be contemplated." and opening a way for bold speculation on "that mystery of mysteries, the replacement of extinct species by others." Herschel himself thought catastrophic extinction and renewal

Catastrophism

"an inadequate conception of the Creator", and by analogy with other intermediate causes

Physical law

A physical law or scientific law is "a theoretical principle deduced from particular facts, applicable to a defined group or class of phenomena, and expressible by the statement that a particular phenomenon always occurs if certain conditions be present." Physical laws are typically conclusions...

"the origination of fresh species, could it ever come under our cognizance, would be found to be a natural in contradistinction to a miraculous process".

In Cape Town missionaries were being accused of causing racial tension and profiteering, and after the Beagle set to sea on 18 June FitzRoy wrote an open letter to the evangelical

Evangelicalism

Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...

South African Christian Recorder on the Moral State of Tahiti incorporating extracts from both his and Darwin's diaries to defend the reputation of missionaries. This was given to a passing ship which took it to Cape Town to become FitzRoy's (and Darwin's) first published work.

On 8 July they stopped at St. Helena for six days. Darwin took lodgings near Napoleon's

Napoleon I of France

Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...

tomb, and when writing to Henslow asking to be proposed for the Geological Society

Geological Society of London

The Geological Society of London is a learned society based in the United Kingdom with the aim of "investigating the mineral structure of the Earth"...

, mentioned his suspicions "that differently from most Volcanic Islds. its structure is rather complicated. It seems strange, that this little centre of a distinct creation should, as is asserted, bear marks of recent elevation." With a guide he wandered over the island, noting its complex sloping strata

Stratum

In geology and related fields, a stratum is a layer of sedimentary rock or soil with internally consistent characteristics that distinguish it from other layers...

showing fault lines, interlaced with volcanic

Fissure vent

A fissure vent, also known as a volcanic fissure or simply fissure, is a linear volcanic vent through which lava erupts, usually without any explosive activity. The vent is usually a few meters wide and may be many kilometers long. Fissure vents can cause large flood basalts and lava channels...

dykes

Dike (geology)

A dike or dyke in geology is a type of sheet intrusion referring to any geologic body that cuts discordantly across* planar wall rock structures, such as bedding or foliation...

. He examined beds high on the hill which had been taken as seashells showing that St. Helena had risen from the ocean in recent times, but Darwin identified them as extinct species of land-shells. He noted that woodland had been destroyed by goats and hogs which had run wild since being introduced in 1502, and native vegetation only predominated on high steep ridges, having been replaced by imported species.

At this stage Darwin had an acute interest in island biogeography

Biogeography

Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species , organisms, and ecosystems in space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities vary in a highly regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, isolation and habitat area...

, and his description of St Helena as "a little centre of creation" in his geological diary reflects Charles Lyell

Charles Lyell

's speculation in Volume 2 of Principles of Geology
Principles of Geology
Principles of Geology, being an attempt to explain the former changes of the Earth's surface, by reference to causes now in operation, is a book by the Scottish geologist Charles Lyell....

that the island would have acted as a "focus of creative force". He later recalled believing in the permanence of species, but "as far as I can remember, vague doubts occasionally flitted across my mind". When organising his Ornithological Notes between mid June and August, Darwin expanded on his initial notes on the Galapagos mockingbird

Mockingbird

Mockingbirds are a group of New World passerine birds from the Mimidae family. They are best known for the habit of some species mimicking the songs of other birds and the sounds of insects and amphibians, often loudly and in rapid succession. There are about 17 species in three genera...

Mimus thenca:

These birds are closely allied in appearance to the Thenca of Chile or Callandra of la Plata. ... In each Isld. each kind is exclusively found: habits of all are indistinguishable. When I recollect, the fact that the form of the body, shape of scales & general size, the Spaniards can at once pronounce, from which Island any Tortoise may have been brought. When I see these Islands in sight of each other, & [but del.] possessed of but a scanty stock of animals, tenanted by these birds, but slightly differing in structure & filling the same place in Nature, I must suspect they are only varieties.
The only fact of a similar kind of which I am aware, is the constant asserted difference — between the wolf-like Fox of East & West Falkland Islds.
If there is the slightest foundation for these remarks the zoology of Archipelagoes — will be well worth examining; for such facts [would inserted] undermine the stability of Species.

The term "would" before "undermine" had been a cautious addition after writing what is now noted as the first expression of his doubts about species being immutable, which led to him being convinced about the transmutation of species

Transmutation of species

and hence evolution

Evolution

. Though his suspicions about the Falkland Island Fox may have been unsupported, the differences in Galápagos tortoise

Galápagos tortoise

s between islands were remembered, and he later wrote that he had been greatly struck from around March 1836 by the character of South American fossils and of species on the Galapagos Archipelago, noting "These facts origin (especially latter) of all my views".

The Beagle reached Ascension Island

Ascension Island

Ascension Island is an isolated volcanic island in the equatorial waters of the South Atlantic Ocean, around from the coast of Africa and from the coast of South America, which is roughly midway between the horn of South America and Africa...

on 19 July 1836, and Darwin was delighted to receive letters from his sisters with news that Sedgwick had written "He is doing admirably in S. America, & has already sent home a Collection above all praise.— It was the best thing in the world for him that he went out on the Voyage of Discovery— There was some risk of his turning out an idle man: but his character will now be fixed, & if God spare his life, he will have a great name among the Naturalists of Europe." Darwin later recalled how he "clambered over the mountains... with a bounding step and made the volcanic rocks resound under my geological hammer!." He agreed with the saying attributed to the people of St Helena that "We know we live on a rock, but the poor people at Ascension live on a cinder", and noted the care taken to sustain "houses, gardens & fields placed near the summit of the central mountain". (In the 1840s Darwin worked with Joseph Dalton Hooker

Joseph Dalton Hooker

Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker OM, GCSI, CB, MD, FRS was one of the greatest British botanists and explorers of the 19th century. Hooker was a founder of geographical botany, and Charles Darwin's closest friend...

, who proposed in 1847 that the Royal Navy import tree species, a project started in 1850 which led to the creation of an artificial cloud forest.)

On 23 July they set off again longing to reach home, but FitzRoy wanted to ensure the accuracy of his longitude measurements and so took the ship across the Atlantic back to Bahia

Bahia

Bahia is one of the 26 states of Brazil, and is located in the northeastern part of the country on the Atlantic coast. It is the fourth most populous Brazilian state after São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro, and the fifth-largest in size...

in Brazil

Brazil

to take check readings. Darwin was glad to see the beauties of the jungle for a last time, but now compared "the stately Mango trees with the Horse Chesnuts of England." The return trip was delayed for a further 11 days when weather forced the Beagle to shelter further up the coast at Pernambuco

Pernambuco

Pernambuco is a state of Brazil, located in the Northeast region of the country. To the north are the states of Paraíba and Ceará, to the west is Piauí, to the south are Alagoas and Bahia, and to the east is the Atlantic Ocean. There are about of beaches, some of the most beautiful in the...

, where Darwin examined rocks for signs of elevation, noted "Mangroves like rank grass" and investigated marine invertebrates at various depths on the sandbar. The Beagle departed for home on 17 August. After a stormy passage including a stop for supplies at the Azores

Azores

The Archipelago of the Azores is composed of nine volcanic islands situated in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and is located about west from Lisbon and about east from the east coast of North America. The islands, and their economic exclusion zone, form the Autonomous Region of the...

, the Beagle finally reached Falmouth, Cornwall

Falmouth, Cornwall

Falmouth is a town, civil parish and port on the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It has a total resident population of 21,635.Falmouth is the terminus of the A39, which begins some 200 miles away in Bath, Somerset....

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

on 2 October 1836. A plaque now commemorates his arrival point in Falmouth, Cornwall

Falmouth, Cornwall

Return

Upon his return, Darwin was quick to take the coach

Stagecoach

A stagecoach is a type of covered wagon for passengers and goods, strongly sprung and drawn by four horses, usually four-in-hand. Widely used before the introduction of railway transport, it made regular trips between stages or stations, which were places of rest provided for stagecoach travelers...

home, arriving late at night on 4 October 1836 at The Mount House

The Mount, Shrewsbury

The Mount, is the site of a house in Shrewsbury, officially known as Mount House that belonged to Robert Darwin and was the birthplace of his son Charles Darwin.- Overview :...

, the family home in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. Darwin reportedly headed straight to bed and greeted his family at breakfast. After ten days of catching up with family he went on to Cambridge

Cambridge

and sought Henslow

John Stevens Henslow

John Stevens Henslow was an English clergyman, botanist and geologist. He is best remembered as friend and mentor to his pupil Charles Darwin.- Early life :...

's advice on organising the description and cataloguing of his collections.

Darwin's father gave him an allowance that enabled him to put aside other careers, and as a scientific celebrity with a reputation established by his fossils and Henslow's publication of his letters on South American geology, he toured London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

's society institutions. By this time he was part of the "scientific establishment

The Establishment

The Establishment is a term used to refer to a visible dominant group or elite that holds power or authority in a nation. The term suggests a closed social group which selects its own members...

", collaborating with expert naturalists to describe his specimens, and working on ideas he had been developing during the voyage. Charles Lyell

Charles Lyell

gave him enthusiastic backing. In December 1836, Darwin presented a talk to the Cambridge Philosophical Society

Cambridge Philosophical Society

The Cambridge Philosophical Society is a scientific society at University of Cambridge. It was founded in 1819. The name derives from the medieval use of the word philosophy to denote any research undertaken outside the fields of theology and medicine...

. He wrote a paper proving that Chile, and the South American continent

Continent

A continent is one of several very large landmasses on Earth. They are generally identified by convention rather than any strict criteria, with seven regions commonly regarded as continents—they are : Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Antarctica, Europe, and Australia.Plate tectonics is...

, was slowly rising, which he read to the Geological Society of London

Geological Society of London

The Geological Society of London is a learned society based in the United Kingdom with the aim of "investigating the mineral structure of the Earth"...

on 4 January 1837.

Darwin thought of having his diary published mixed in with FitzRoy's account, but his relatives including Emma

Emma Darwin

Emma Darwin was the wife and first cousin of Charles Darwin, the English naturalist, scientist and author of On the Origin of Species...

and Hensleigh Wedgwood

Hensleigh Wedgwood

Hensleigh Wedgwood was a British etymologist, philologist and barrister, author of A Dictionary of English Etymology. Wedgwood was the fourth son of Josiah Wedgwood II and Elizabeth Allen...

urged that it be published separately. On 30 December the question was settled by FitzRoy taking the advice of William Broderip

William Broderip

William John Broderip was an English lawyer and naturalist.-Life:Broderip, the eldest son of William Broderip, surgeon from Bristol, was born at Bristol on 21 November 1789, and, after being educated at Bristol Grammar School under the Rev. Samuel Seyer, matriculated at Oriel College, Oxford, and...

that Darwin's journal should form the third volume of the Narrative. Darwin set to work reorganising and trimming his diary, and incorporating scientific material from his notes. He completed his Journal and Remarks
The Voyage of the Beagle
The Voyage of the Beagle is a title commonly given to the book written by Charles Darwin and published in 1839 as his Journal and Remarks, bringing him considerable fame and respect...

(now commonly known as The Voyage of the Beagle) in August 1837, but FitzRoy was slower and the three volumes were published in August 1839.

Syms Covington

Syms Covington

stayed with Darwin as his servant, then on 25 February 1839 (shortly after Darwin's marriage) Covington parted on good terms and migrated to Australia.

Expert publications on Darwin's collections

Darwin had shown great ability as a collector and had done the best he could with the reference books he had on ship. It was now the province of recognised expert specialists to establish which specimens were unknown, and make their considered taxonomic

Taxonomy

Taxonomy is the science of identifying and naming species, and arranging them into a classification. The field of taxonomy, sometimes referred to as "biological taxonomy", revolves around the description and use of taxonomic units, known as taxa...

decisions on defining and naming new species.

Fossils

Richard Owen

Sir Richard Owen, FRS KCB was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and palaeontologist.Owen is probably best remembered today for coining the word Dinosauria and for his outspoken opposition to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection...

had expertise in comparative anatomy and his professional judgements revealed a succession of similar species in the same locality, giving Darwin insights which he would later recall as being central to his new views. Owen met Darwin on 29 October 1836 and quickly took on the task of describing these new fossils. At that time the only fully described fossil mammals from South America were three species of Mastodon
Mastodon
Mastodons were large tusked mammal species of the extinct genus Mammut which inhabited Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and Central America from the Oligocene through Pleistocene, 33.9 mya to 11,000 years ago. The American mastodon is the most recent and best known species of the group...

and the gigantic Megatherium. On 9 November Darwin wrote to his sister that "Some of them are turning out great treasures." The near complete skeleton from Punta Alta was apparently very closely allied to anteater

Anteater

Anteaters, also known as antbear, are the four mammal species of the suborder Vermilingua commonly known for eating ants and termites. Together with the sloths, they compose the order Pilosa...

s, but of the extraordinary size of a small horse. The rhinoceros

Rhinoceros

Rhinoceros , also known as rhino, is a group of five extant species of odd-toed ungulates in the family Rhinocerotidae. Two of these species are native to Africa and three to southern Asia....

sized head bought for two shillings near Mercedes

Mercedes, Uruguay

was not a megatherium, but "as far as they can guess, must have been a gnawing animal. Conceive a Rat or a Hare of such a size— What famous Cats they ought to have had in those days!" Over the following years Owen published descriptions of the most important fossils, naming several as new species.

The fossils from Punta Alta

Punta Alta

Punta Alta is a city in Argentina, about 20 kilometers southeast of Bahía Blanca. It has a population of 57,296. It is the capital of the Coronel Rosales Partido...

included a nearly perfect head and three fragments of heads of the Megatherium Cuvierii
Megatherium
Megatherium was a genus of elephant-sized ground sloths endemic to Central America and South America that lived from the Pliocene through Pleistocene existing approximately...

, the jaw of a related species which Owen named Mylodon Darwinii
Mylodon
Mylodon is an extinct genus of giant ground sloth that lived in the Patagonia area of South America until roughly 10,000 years ago.Mylodon weighed about and stood up to tall when raised up on its hind legs. Preserved dung has shown it was a herbivore. It had very thick hide and had osteoderms...

, and jaws of Megalonyx Jeffersonii
Megalonyx
Megalonyx is an extinct genus of giant ground sloths of the family Megalonychidae endemic to North America from the Hemphillian of the Late Miocene through to the Rancholabrean of the Pleistocene, living from ~10.3 Mya—11,000 years ago, existing for approximately .-Taxonomy:The generic name...

. The near complete skeleton was named Scelidotherium
Scelidotherium
Scelidotherium is an extinct genus of actively mobile ground sloth of the family Mylodontidae, endemic to South America during the middle Pleistocene epoch. It lived from 780,000—11,000 years ago, existing for approximately ....

by Owen, who found it had most of its bones nearly in their proper relative positions. At the nearby Monte Hermoso

Monte Hermoso

Monte Hermoso is a town located on the Atlantic coast of Argentina, some east of the city of Bahía Blanca, in the south of the Province of Buenos Aires...

beds the numerous rodents included species allied to the Brazilian Tuco-tuco

Brazilian Tuco-tuco

The Brazilian Tuco-tuco, Ctenomys brasiliensis, is a tuco-tuco species from South America. It is found mainly in Brazil, though Charles Darwin mentions it during his trip through present Uruguay...

and the Capybara

Capybara

The capybara , also known as capivara in Portuguese, and capibara, chigüire in Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador ronsoco in Peru, chigüiro, and carpincho in Spanish, is the largest living rodent in the world. Its closest relatives are agouti, chinchillas, coyphillas, and guinea pigs...

.

Owen decided that the fossils of polygonal plates of bony armour found at several locations were not from the Megatherium as Cuvier

Georges Cuvier

Georges Chrétien Léopold Dagobert Cuvier or Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric Cuvier , known as Georges Cuvier, was a French naturalist and zoologist...

's description implied, but from a huge armadillo as Darwin had briefly thought. Owen found a description of an earlier unnamed specimen which he named Glyptodon clavipes
Glyptodon
Glyptodon was a large, armored mammal of the family Glyptodontidae, a relative of armadillos that lived during the Pleistocene Epoch. It was roughly the same size and weight as a Volkswagen Beetle, though flatter in shape...

in 1839. Darwin's find from Punta Alta, a large surface about 3 ft (1.5 m) by 2 ft (0.6 m) doubled over with toe bones still inside the folded armour, was identified as a slightly smaller Glyptodont
Glyptodontidae
Glyptodonts were large, more heavily armored relatives of extinct pampatheres and modern armadillos.They first evolved during the Miocene in South America, which remained their center of species diversity...

named Hoplophorus
Hoplophorus
Hoplophorus was an extinct genus of glyptodont, a family of mammals related to armadillo. The only known species was H. euphractus....

by Lund

Peter Wilhelm Lund

Peter Wilhelm Lund was a Danish paleontologist, zoologist, archeologist and who spent most of his life working and living in Brazil...

in the same year.

The huge skull from near Mercedes was named Toxodon
Toxodon
Toxodon is an extinct mammal of the late Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs about 2.6 million to 16,500 years ago. It was indigenous to South America, and was probably the most common large-hoofed mammal in South America at the time of its existence....

by Owen, and he showed that the "enormous gnawing tooth" from the cliffs of the Carcarañá River

Carcarañá River

was a molar from this species. The finds near Mercedes also included a large fragment of Glyptodont armour and a head which Owen initially identified as a Glossotherium
Glossotherium
Glossotherium was a genus of ground sloth. It was a heavily built animal with a length of about snout to tail-tip, and could potentially assume a slight bipedal stance.Fossils of this animal have been found in South America...

, but later decided was a Mylodon. Owen found fragments of the jaw and a tooth of another Toxodon in the fossils from Punta Alta.

The fossils from near Santa Fé

Santa Fe, Argentina

included the horse tooth which had puzzled Darwin as it had been previously thought that horses had only come to the Americas in the 16th century, close to a Toxodon tooth and a tooth of Mastodon andium (now Cuvieronius hyodon
Cuvieronius
Cuvieronius is an extinct New World genus of gomphothere. It is named after the French naturalist Georges Cuvier, stood 2.7 m tall and looked like a modern elephant except for its spiral-shaped tusks.-Origin:...

). Owen confirmed that the horse tooth was of an extinct South American species which he named Equus curvidens, and its age was confirmed by a corroded horse tooth among the Punta Alta fossils. This discovery was later explained as part of the evolution of the horse

Evolution of the horse

The evolution of the horse pertains to the phylogenetic ancestry of the modern horse from the small dog-sized, forest-dwelling Hyracotherium over geologic time scales...

.

The "soft as cheese" Mastodon
Mastodon
Mastodons were large tusked mammal species of the extinct genus Mammut which inhabited Asia, Africa, Europe, North America and Central America from the Oligocene through Pleistocene, 33.9 mya to 11,000 years ago. The American mastodon is the most recent and best known species of the group...

bones at the Paraná River

Paraná River

were identified as two gigantic skeletons of the Mastodon andium, and Mastodon teeth were also identified from Santa Fé and the Carcarañá River. The pieces of spine and a hind leg of from Port S. Julian

Puerto San Julián

which Darwin had thought came from "some large animal, I fancy a Mastodon" gave Owen difficulties, as the creature which he named Macrauchenia
Macrauchenia
Macrauchenia was a long-necked and long-limbed, three-toed South American ungulate mammal, typifying the order Litopterna. The oldest fossils date back to around 7 million years ago, and M...

appeared to be a "gigantic and most extraordinary pachyderm

Pachydermata

Pachydermata is an obsolete order of mammals described by Gottlieb Storr, Georges Cuvier and others, at one time recognized by many systematists...

", allied to the Palaeotherium
Palaeotherium
Palaeotherium is an extinct genus of primitive perissodactyl ungulate. George Cuvier originally described them as being a kind of tapir, and as such, Palaeotherium is popularly reconstructed as a tapir-like animal...

, but with affinities to the llama

Llama

The llama is a South American camelid, widely used as a meat and pack animal by Andean cultures since pre-Hispanic times....

and the camel

Camel

A camel is an even-toed ungulate within the genus Camelus, bearing distinctive fatty deposits known as humps on its back. There are two species of camels: the dromedary or Arabian camel has a single hump, and the bactrian has two humps. Dromedaries are native to the dry desert areas of West Asia,...

. The fossils at Punta Alta included a pachyderm tooth which was thought probably came from Macrauchenia.

Aims of the expedition

Context and preparations

Voyage

Atlantic islands

Surveying South America

Tropical paradise and slavery

Fossil finds

Tierra del Fuego

Gauchos, Rheas, fossils and geology

West coast of South America

Galápagos Islands

Tahiti to Australia

Keeling Island homewards

Return

Expert publications on Darwin's collections

Fossils

See also

Further reading