= SSeS See Se Ss I CORNELL , UNIVERSITY LIBRARY GIFT OF Professor Henry Guerlac D 1 O ! 0, f: o00% eo00% o00° e000" 0008 [2 ° ey ai °. © EX LIBRIS Oo, eee? Henry Guerlac 129% 000% ubigr repent Peis WAC o Mon Pee Pe000% 0900" Poeoe” Pea00% i Cornell Universit QH 11.D22u86 91 Journal of researches into the natural ‘it GAYLORD Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924010074684 A NATURALISTS VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD First EDITION SECOND EDITION THIRD EDITION FOURTH EDITION FIFTH EDITION SIxTH EDITION SEVENTH EDITION EIGHTH EDITION NINTH EDITION TENTH EDITION ELEVENTH EDITION Reprinted . May 1860 May 1870 . February 1872 July 1874 March 1876 January 1879 May 1882 . February 1884 August 1886 January 1888 January 1890 June 1913 | i tl | il) fy i | Frontispiece. MT. SARMIENTO IN THE DISTANCE, H.M.S. BEAGLE IN STRAITS OF MAGELLAN. JOURNAL OF RESEARCHES INTO THE NATURAL HISTORY & GEOLOGY Or THE COUNTRIES VISITED DURING THE VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD OF H.M.S. ‘BEAGLE’ UNDER THE COMMAND OF CAPTAIN FITZ ROY, R.N. By CHARLES DARWIN, M.A,, F-.R.S. AUTHOR OF ‘ORIGIN OF SPECIES,’ ETC. A NEW EDITION WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY R. T. PRITCHETT OF PLACES VISITED AND OBJECTS DESCRIBED LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET 1913 TO CHARLES LYELL, Esq, F.R.S., THIS SECOND EDITION IS DEDICATED WITH GRATEFUL PLEASURE, AS AN ACKNOWLEDGMENT THAT THE CHIEF PART OF WHATEVER SCIENTIFIC MERIT THIS JOURNAL AND THE OTHER WORKS OF THE AUTHOR MAY POSSESS, HAS BEEN DERIVED FROM STUDYING THE WELL-KNOWN AND ADMIRABLE PRINCIPLES OF GEOLOGY Tra - tera FRom Wasen Oo! [al L ee PREPATORY NOTICE TO “THE ILLUSTRATED DITION THIS work was described, on its first appearance, by a writer in the Quarterly Review as “One of the most interesting narratives of voyaging that it has fallen to our lot to take up, and one which must always occupy a distinguished place in the history of scientific navigation.” This prophecy has been amply verified by experience ; the extraordinary minuteness and accuracy of Mr. Darwin’s obser- vations, combined with the charm and_ simplicity of his descriptions, have ensured the popularity of this book with all classes of readers—and that popularity has even increased in recent years. No attempt, however, has hitherto been made to produce an illustrated edition of this valuable work: numberless places and objects are mentioned and described, but the difficulty of obtaining authentic and original representa- tions of them drawn for the purpose has never been overcome until now. Most of the views given in this work are from sketches made on the spot by Mr. Pritchett, with Mr. Darwin’s book by his side. Some few of the others are taken from engravings which Mr. Darwin had himself selected for their interest as illustrating his voyage, and which have been kindly lent by his son. Mr. Pritchett’s name is well known in connection with the voyages of the Subeam and Wanderer, and it is believed that the illustrations, which have been chosen and verified with the utmost care and pains, will greatly add to the value and interest of the “ VOYAGE OF A NATURALIST.” JOHN MURRAY. Dec. 1889. AUTHOR'S PREFACE I HAVE stated in the preface to the first Edition of this work, and in the Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle, that it was in consequence of a wish expressed by Captain Fitz Roy, of having some scientific person on board, accompanied by an offer from him of giving up part of his own accommodations, that I volunteered my services, which received, through the kindness of the hydrographer, Captain Beaufort, the sanction of the Lords of the Admiralty. As I feel that the opportunities which I enjoyed of studying the Natural History of the different countries we visited have been wholly due to Captain Fitz Roy, I hope I may here be permitted to repeat my expression of gratitude to him; and to add that, during the five years we were together, I received from him the most cordial friendship and steady assistance. Both to Captain Fitz Roy and to all the Officers of the Beagle’ I shall ever feel most thankful for the undeviating kindness with which I was treated during our long voyage. This volume contains, in the form of a Journal, a history of our voyage, and a sketch of those observations in Natural History and Geology which I think will possess some interest for the general reader. I have in this edition largely condensed and corrected some parts, and have added a little to others, in order to render the volume more fitted for popular reading ; but I trust that naturalists will remember that they must refer for details to the larger publications which comprise the scientific results of the Expedition. The Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle includes an account of the Fossil Mammalia, by Professor Owen; of the Living Mammalia, by Mr. Waterhouse ; of the Birds, by Mr. Gould; of the Fish, by the Rev. L. 1 I must take this opportunity of returning my sincere thanks to Mr. Bynoe, the surgeon of the Beagle, for his very kind attention to me when I was ill at Valparaiso. PREFACE vii Jenyns; and of the Reptiles, by Mr. Bell. I have appended to the descriptions ot each species an account of its habits and range. These works, which I owe to the high talents and disinterested zeal of the above distinguished authors, could not have been undertaken had it not been for the liberality of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury, who, through the representation of the Right Honourable the Chancellor of the Exchequer, have been pleased to grant a sum of one thousand pounds towards defraying part of the expenses of publication. I have myself published separate volumes on the Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs, on the Volcanic Islands vestted during the Voyage of the Peagle ; and on the Geology of South America. The sixth volume of the Geological Trans- actions contains two papers of mine on the Erratic Boulders and Volcanic Phenomena of South America. Messrs. Water- house, Walker, Newman, and White, have published several able papers on the Insects which were collected, and I trust that many others will hereafter follow. The plants from the southern parts of America will be given by Dr. J. Hooker, in his great work on the Botany of the Southern Hemisphere. The Flora of the Galapagos Archipelago is the subject of a separate memoir by him, in the Lexnean Transactions. The Reverend Professor Henslow has published a list of the plants collected by me at the Keeling Islands; and the Reverend J. M. Berkeley has described my cryptogamic plants. I shall have the pleasure of acknowledging the great assistance which I have received from several other naturalists in the course of this and my other works; but I must be here allowed to return my most sincere thanks to the Reverend Professor Henslow, who, when I was an undergraduate at Cambridge, was one chief means of giving me a taste for Natural History—who, during my absence, took charge of the collections I sent home, and by his correspondence directed my endeavours,—and who, since my return, has constantly rendered me every assistance which the kindest friend could offer. Down, BRoMLEyY, KENT, June 1845. CONTENTS CHAPTER I Porto Praya—Ribeira Grande—Atmospheric dust with Infusoria—Habits of a Sea- Rio slug and Cuttle-fish—St. Paul’s Rocks, non-volcanic—Singular incrustations— Insects the first colonists of Islands—Fernando Noronha—Bahia—Burnished Rocks—Habits of a Diodon—Pelagic Confervae and Infusoria—Causes of dis- coloured Sea. . : 7 F : . Pages 1-18 CHAPTER II de Janeiro—Excursion north of Cape Frio—Great Evaporation—-Slavery— Botofogo Bay—Terrestrial Planarie—Clouds on the Corcovado—Heavy rain —Musical frogs—Phosphorescent insects—Elater, springing powers of—Blue Haze—Noise made by a Butterfly—Entomology—Ants—Wasp killing a Spider —Parasitical Spider—Artifices of an sme ne Spider—Spider with an unsymmetrical web. : : 19-39 CHAPTER III Monte Video—Maldonado—Excursion to R. Polanco—Lazoand Bolas—Partridges— Absence of trees—Deer—Capybara, or River Hog—Tucutuco—Molothrus, cuckoo-like habits — Tyrant - flycatcher— Mocking -bird—Carrion Hawks— Tubes formed by lightning—House struck - : - 40-64 CHAPTER IV Rio Negro—Estancias attacked by the Indians—Salt Lakes—Flamingoes—R. Negro to R. Colorado—Sacred Tree—Patagonian Hare—Indian Families— General Rosas—Proceed to Bahia Blanca—Sand Dunes—Negro Lieutenant.— Bahia Planca—Saline incrustations—Punta Alta—Zorillo . 65-84 CONTENTS ix CHAPTER V Bahia Blanca—Geology -—Numerous gigantic extinct Quadrupeds—Recent Extinction —-Longevity of Species—Large animals do not require a luxuriant vegetation— Southern Africa—Siberian Fossils—Two Species of Ostrich—Habits of Oven- bird—Armadilloes— Venomous Snake, Toad, Lizard—Hybernation of Animals— Habits of Sea-Pen—Indian Wars and Massacres—Arrowhead—Antiquarian Relic. : : : 5 ‘ Pages 85-110 CHAPTER VI Set out for Buenos Ayres—Rio Sauce—Sierra Ventana—Third Posta— Driving Horses — Bolas— Partridges and Foxes—Features of the country—-Long- legged Plover —Teru -tero— Hail-storm— Natural enclosures in the Sierra Tapalguen—Flesh of Puma—Meat diet—Guardia del Monte—Effects of cattle on the Vegetation—Cardoon—Buenos Ayres—Corral where cattle are slaughtered : ; ; , : 111-128 CHAPTER VII Excursion to St. Fé—Thistle Beds—Habits of the Bizcacha—Little Owl—Saline streams—Level plains—Mastodon—St. Fé—Change in landscape—Geology —Tooth of extinct Horse—Relation of the Fossil and recent Quadrupeds of North and South America—Effects of a great drought—Parana—Habits of the Jaguar—Scissor-beak—Kingfisher, Parrot, and Scissor-tail—Revolution— Buenos Ayres—State of Government . : s : 129-150 CHAPTER VIII Excursion to Colonia del Sacramiento-—Value of an Estancia—Cattle, how counted —Singular breed of Oxen— Perforated pebbles— Shepherd - dogs— Horses broken-in, Gauchos riding—Character of Inhabitants—Rio Plata—Flocks of Butterflies—Aéronaut Spiders—Phosphorescence of the Sea—Port Desire— Guanaco—Port St. Julian—Geology of Patagonia—Fossil gigantic Animal— Types of Organisation constant—Change in the Zoology of America—Causes of extinction : 3 : : 2 . 151-186 CHAPTER IX Santa Cruz—Expedition up the River—Indians—Immense streams of basaltic lava— Fragments not transported by the river—Excavation of the valley—Condor, habits of—Cordillera—Erratic boulders of great size—Indian relics—Return to the ship—Falkland Islands—Wild horses, cattle, rabbits—Wolf-like fox—Fire made of bones—Manner of hunting wild cattle—Geology—Streams of stones— Scenes of violence— Penguin—Geese—Eggs of Doris—Compound animals 187-214 x CONTENTS CHAPTER X Tierra del Fuego, first arrival—Good Success Bay—An account of the Fuegians on board—Interview with the savages—Scenery of the forests—Cape Horn—Wig- wam Cove — Miserable condition of the savages — amines — Cannibals — Matricide—Religious feelings—Great Gale—Beagle Channel—Ponsonby Sound —Build wigwams and settle the Fuegians—Bifurcation of the Beagle Channel —Glaciers—Return to the Ship—Second visit in the Ship to the Settlement— Equality of condition amongst the natives . a ‘ Pages 215-243 CHAPTER XI Strait of Magellan—Port Famine—Ascent of Mount Tarn—Forests— Edible fungus —Zoology—Great Seaweed—Leave Tierra del Fuego—Climate—Fruit-trees and productions of the southern coasts—Height of snow-line on the Cordillera —Descent of glaciers to the sea—Icebergs formed—Transportal of boulders— Climate and productions of the Antarctic Islands—Preservation of frozen car- casses—Kecapitulation . . . 4 . 244-267 CHAPTER XII Valparaiso—Excursion to the foot of the Andes—Structure of the land—Ascend the Bell of Quillota—Shattered masses of greenstone—Immense valleys—M ines —State of miners—Santiago—Hot-baths of Cauquenes—Gold-mines—Grind- ing-mills—Perforated stones—Habits of the Puma—E] Turco and Tapacolo— Humming-birds . . 2 . é ; Q 268-290 CHAPTER XIII Chiloe—General aspect—Boat excursion—Native Indians—Castro—Tame fox— Ascend San Pedro—Chonos Archipelago—Peninsula of Tres Montes—Granitic range—Boat-wrecked sailors—Low’s Harbour—-Wild potato—I‘ormation of eat—Myopotamus, otter and mice—Cheucau and Barking -bird—Opetio- rhynchus—Singular character of ornithology—Petrels . . 291-310 CHAPTER XIV San Carlos, Chiloe—Osorno in eruption, contemporaneously with Aconcagua and Coseguina—Ride to Cucao—Impenetrable forests—Valdivia—Indians—FEarth- quake—Concepcion—Great earthquake—Rocks fissured—Appearance of the former towns—The sea black and boiling—VDirection of the vibrations—Stones twisted round—Great Wave—Permanent elevation of the land—Area of volcanic phenomena—The connection between the elevatory and eruptive forces—Cause of earthquakes—Slow elevation of mountain-chains A : 311-333 CONTENTS xi CHAPTER XV Valparaiso— Portillo Pass—Sagacity of mules— Mountain-torrents— Mines, how discovered— Proofs of the gradual elevation of the Cordillera—Effect of snow on rocks—Geological structure of the two main ranges, their distinct origin and upheaval—Great subsidence—Red snow—Winds— Pinnacles of snow—Dry and clear atmosphere—Electricity—Pampas—dZoology of the opposite sides of the Andes— Locusts—Great Bugs— Mendoza— Uspallata Pass—Silicified trees buried as they grew—lIncas Bridge—Badness of the passes exaggerated— Cumbre—Casuchas—Valparaiso . z . - Pages 334-359 CHAPTER XVI Coast-road to Coquimbo—Great loads carried by the miners—Coquimbo—Earthquake —Step-formed terraces—Absence of recent deposits—Contemporaneousness of the Tertiary formations—Excursion up the valley—Road to Guasco—Deserts— Valley of Copiap6—Rain and Earthquakes—Hydrophobia—The Despoblado— Indian ruins—Probable change of climate—River-bed arched by an earthquake —Cold gales of wind—Noises from a hill—Iquique—Salt alluvium—Nitrate of soda—Lima—Unhealthy country— Ruins of Callao, overthrown by an earthquake—Recent subsidence—Elevated shells on San Lorenzo, their decom- position—Plain with embedded shells and fragments of pottery—Antiquity of the Indian Race . . . . . . 360-396 CHAPTER XVII Galapagos Archipelago—The whole group volcanic—Number of craters—-Leafless bushes—Colony at Charles Island—James Island— Salt-lake in crater—Natural history of the group—Ornithology, curious finches—Reptiles—Great tortoises, habits of—Marine lizard, feeds on seaweed—Terrestrial lizard, burrowing habits, herbivorous—Importance of reptiles in the Archipelago—Fish, shells, insects— Botany—American type of organisation—Differences in the species or races on different isands—Tameness of the birds—Fear of man an acquired instinct 397-427 CHAPTER XVIII Pass through the Low Archipelago-—Tahiti—Aspect— Vegetation on the mountains —View of Eimeo—Excursion into the interior— Profound ravines—Succession of waterfalls—Number of wild useful plants—Temperance of the inhabitants— Their moral state—Parliament convened—New Zealand—Bay of islands— Hippahs—Excursion to Waimate—Missionary establishment—English weeds now run wild—Waiomio—Funeral of a New Zealand woman—Sail for Australia F e . : 7 7 i 428-458 xii CONTENTS CHAPTER XIX Sydney—Excursion to Bathurst—Aspect of the woods—Party of natives—Gradual extinction of the aborigines—Infection generated by associated men in health— Blue Mountains—View of the grand gulf-like valleys—Their origin and forma- tion—Bathurst, general civility of the lower orders-—State of Society—Van Diemen’s Land—Hobart Town—Aborigines all banished—Mount Wellington —King George’s Sound—Cheerless aspect of the country—Bald Head, calcareous casts of branches of trees—Party of natives—Leave Australia Pages 459-480 CHAPTER XX Keeling Island—Singular appearance—Scanty Flora—Transport of seeds—Birds and insects—Ebbing and flowing springs—Fields of dead coral—Stones transported in the roots of trees—Great crab—Stinging corals—Coral-eating fish—Coral formations—Lagoon islands or atolls—Depth at which reef-building corals can live—Vast areas interspersed with low coral islands—Subsidence of their founda- tions—Barrier-reefs—Fringing-reefs—Conversion of fringing-reefs into barrier- reefs, and into atolls—Evidence of changes in level-—Breaches in barrier-reefs— Maldiva atolls; their peculiar structure—Dead and submerged reefs—Areas of subsidence and elevation —Distribution of volcanoes—Subsidence slow and vast in amount . , : ‘ . : P 481-512 CHAPTER XXI Mauritius, beautiful appearance of—Great crateriform ring of mountains—Hindoos— St. Helena—History of the changes in the vegetation—Cause of the extinction of land-shells—Ascension— Variation in the imported rats—Volcanic bombs—Beds of infusoria—Bahia, Brazil—Splendour of tropical scenery—Pernambuco— Singular reefs—Slavery—Return to England—Retrospect on our voyage 513-538 INDEX 5 7 ‘ 7 . . . 539-551 Lisl OF LEST RAT LONS PAGE H.M.S. BEAGLE IN STRAITS OF MAGELLAN. MT, SARMIENTO IN THE DISTANCE. : ; frontispiece FEKNANDO NORONHA I INCRUSTATION OF SHELLY SAND , ‘ 9 DIODON MACULATUs (Distended and Contracted) . : : 13 PELAGIC CONFERV.E ; : 3 a : 15 CATAMARAN (BAHIA) ‘ : : : 18 BoTOFOGO Bay, RIO JANEIRO. 5 é s 19 VAMPIRE BaT (Desmodus D’Orbignyi}. 23 VIRGIN FOREST ‘ 3 ; 5 ; To face 25 CaBBAGE PALM fe < : 26 MANDIOCA OR CASSAVA. 3 ‘ ‘ 27 RIO JANEIRO To face 32 DARWIN'S PAPILIO FERONIA, 1833, NOW CALLED AGERONIA FERONIA, 1889 ‘ ; 39 HYDROCH-ERUS CAPYBARA OR WATER-HOG : 40 RECADO OR SURCINGLE OF GAUCHO ‘ ' 46 HALT At A PULPERIA ON THE PAMPAS ‘ 4 64 EL CARMEN, OR PATAGUNES, RIO NEGRO ‘ ‘ 65 BRAZILIAN WHIpPs, HOBBLES, \N!) SPURS : 75 BRINGING IN A PRISONER ‘ 84 IRREGULAR TROOPS ‘ : ‘ 85 SKINNING Ujl OR WATER SERPENTS, ; ; . 103 xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS RHEA DarwiInIl (Avestruz Petise) LANDING AT BUENOS AYRES MatE PoTs AND BAMBILLIO GIANT THISTLE OF PAMPAS CYNARA CARDUNCULUS OR ne EVENING ‘CAMP, BUENOS. AYRES § ROZARIO PARANA RIVER TOXODON PLATENSIS. (Found at Saladillo) FossiL TOOTH oF HoRSE (from Bahia Blanca) MYLopon . HEAD OF SCISSOR-BEAK RHYNCHOPS NIGRA, OR SCISSOR-BEAK BUENOS AYRES BULLOCK-WAGGONS FUEGIANS AND WIGWAMS OPUNTIA DARWINII RAISED BEACHES, PATAGONIA LADIES’ COMBS, BANDA ORIENTAL Conpor (Sarcorhamphus gryphus) BASALTIC GLEN, SANTA CRUZ BERKELEY SOUND, FALKLAND ISLANDS YORK MINSTER (Bearing s. 66° E.) CAPE HORN Cape Horn (Another View) ‘ BAD WEATHER, MAGELLAN STRAITS FUEGIAN BASKET AND BONE WEAPONS . FaLsE Horn, CAPE HORN WOLLASTON ISLAND, TIERRA DEL FUEGO PATAGONIANS. FROM CAPE GREGORY PoRT FAMINE, MAGELLAN To face To face To face LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xv PAGE PATAGONIAN BOLAS 248 PATAGONIAN SPURS AND PIPE 249 CYTTARIA DARWINII o. 2ST EYRE SOUND To face 260 GLACIER IN GULF OF PENAS 261 FLORA OF MAGELLAN 265 MACROCYSTIS PYRIFERA, OR MAGELLAN KELP 267 TROCHILUS FORFICATUS 268 HaACIENDA, CONDOR, CacTUs, ETC. . o. (27 CHILIAN MINER ; 277 Cactus (Cereus Peruviana) 278 CORDILLERAS FROM SANTIAGO DE CHILE To face 282 CHILIAN SPURS, STIRRUP, ETC. ; : 290 OLD CHURCH, CASTRO, CHILOE 291 INSIDE CHONOS ARCHIPELAGO . 300 GUNNERA SCABRA, CHILOE 310 ANTUCO VOLCANO, NEAR TALCAHUANO 311 PANORAMIC VIEW OF COAST, CHILOE 312 INSIDE ISLAND OF CHILOE, SAN CARLOS » 313 HIDE BRIDGE, SANTIAGO DE CHILE 334 CHILENOS . P 337 SOUTH AMERICAN BIT 338 BRIDGE OF THE INCAS, USPALLATA Pass . 337 LiMa AND SaN LORENZO s : 360 CoQuIMBO, CHILE 366 Hvuacas, PERUVIAN POTTERY 396 TESTUDO ABINGDONH, GALAPAGOS ISLANDS 397 GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO : 5 % 398 FINCHES FROM GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO 405 AMLELYRHYNCHUS CRISTATUS . . xvi LIST OF JIIUSTRATIONS OPUNTIA GALAPAGEIA.. ‘ . : - 427 AVA OR Kava (Macropiper methysticum), TAHITI 428 EIMEv AND BARRIER-REEF 2 , . To face 432 FATAHUA FALL, TAHITI we lays 438 TAHITIAN . , Q ; . 438 HIppaH, NEW ZEALAND . : : ; 458 SYDNEY, 1835. : : : - 459 HOBART TOWN AND MOUNT WELLINGTON 2 : 475 AUSTRALIAN GROUP OF WEAPONS AND THROWING STICKS 480 INSIDE AN ATOLL, KEELING ISLAND ; . : - 681 WHITSUNDAY ISLAND A ‘ ; : ; - 495 BARRIER-REEF, BOLABOLA ‘ 3 498 SECTIONS OF BARRIER-REEFS : . : - 500 SECTION OF CORAL-REEF. P é , . 502 SECTION OF CORAL-REEF . : . : . 503 BOLABOLA ISLAND d : ; : . Lo face 504 CoRALS. : : ‘ : . 507 BIRGOS LATRO, KEELING ISLAND P : . S12 ST. Louis, MauRITIus . . ‘ 5 é . 553 ST. HELENA : : , 7 es - REZ CELLULAR FORMATION OF VOLCANIC BOMB : : 524 CICADA HOMOPTERA ‘ ; : ; ‘ 52 HOMEWARD BOUND ‘ : . : : » 531 ASCENSION, TERNS AND NODDIES : : ‘ 538 Map OF SOUTH AMERICA MaP OF THE WORLD, SHOWING THE TRACK OF H.M.S.} 4¢ eng BEAGLE = igger Mast pooy 20; 4) % he 12809940] z SS = ao 7 Hy bi/hys quvjjob 2S O-3] uigng }— $5 Ses 8 doy Gos —the parent bodies having been distri- buted by the winds and waves over the immense ocean, But on no other hypothesis can I understand their linear grouping. I may add that Scoresby remarks that green water abounding with pelagic animals is invariably found in a certain part of the Arctic Sea. CATAMARAN (BAHIA). ca | BOTOFOGO BAY, RIO JANEIRO. CEA Pee UL Rkio de Janeiro—Exeursion north of Cape Frio—Great Evaporation —Slavery —Botofogo Bay — Terrestrial Planarize—Clouds on the Corcovado—Heavy Kain— Musical Frogs — Phosphorescent Insects — Elater, springing powers of—Blue Haze—Noise made by 2 Butterfly —Entomology Ants—Wasp killing a Spider—Parasitical Spider—Artifices of an Epeira— Gregarious Spider—Spider with an unsymmetrical Web. RIO DE JANEIRO April 4th to July 5th, 1832—A few days after our arrival I became acquainted with an Englishman who was going to visit his estate, situated, rather more than a hundred miles from the capital, to the northward of Cape Frio. I gladly accepted his kind offer of allowing me to accompany him. April 8ti—Our party amounted to seven. The first stage was very interesting. The day was powerfully hot, and as we passed through the woods, everything was motionless, excepting the large and brilliant butterflies, which lazily fluttered about. The view seen when crossing the hills behind Praia Grande was most beautiful ; the colours were intense, and the prevailing tint a dark bluc ; the sky and the calm waters of the bay vied with cach other in splendour. After passing through some cul- tivated country, we entered a forest which in the grandeur of all its parts could not be exceeded. We arrived by midday at 20 RIO DE JANEIRO CHAP. Ithacaia ; this small village is situated on a plain, and round the central house are the huts of the negroes. These, from their regular form and position, reminded me of the drawings of the Hottentot habitations in Southern Africa. As the moon rose early, we determined to start the same evening for our sleeping-place at the Lagoa Marica. As it was growing dark we passed under one of the massive, bare, and steep hills of granite which are so common in this country. This spot is notorious from having been, for a long time, the residence of some runaway slaves, who, by cultivating a little ground near the top, contrived to eke out a subsistence. At length they were dis- covered, and a party of soldiers being sent, the whole were seized with the exception of one old woman, who, sooner than again be led into slavery, dashed herself to pieces from the summit of the mountain. In a Roman matron this would have been called the noble love of freedom: in a poor negress it is mere brutal obstinacy. We continued riding for some hours. For the few last miles the road was intricate, and it passed through a desert waste of marshes and lagoons. The scene by the dimmed light of the moon was most desolate. A few fireflies flitted by us; and the solitary snipe, as it rose, uttered its plaintive cry. The distant and sullen roar of the sea scarcely broke the stillness of the night. | April 9th—We left our miserable sleeping-place before sun- rise. The road passed through a narrow sandy plain, lying between the sea and the interior salt lagoons. The number of beautiful fishing birds, such as egrets and cranes, and the succulent plants assuming most fantastical forms, gave to the scene an interest which it would not otherwise have possessed. The few stunted trees were loaded with parasitical plants, among which the beauty and delicious fragrance of some of the orchidee were most to be admired. As the sun rose, the day became ex- tremely hot, and the reflection of the light and heat from the white sand was very distressing. We dined at Mandetiba ; the thermometer in the shade being 84°. The beautiful view of the distant wooded hills, reflected in the perfectly calm water of an extensive lagoon, quite refreshed us. As the vénda! here was a very good one, and I have the pleasant, but rare re- membrance of an excellent dinner, I will be grateful and ?Vénda, the Portuguese name for an inn, ul LIVING AT A VENDA 21 presently describe it, as the type of its class. These houses are often large, and are built of thick upright posts, with boughs interwoven, and afterwards plastered. They seldom have floors, and never glazed windows ; but are generally pretty well roofed. Universally the front part is open, forming a kind of verandah, in which tables and benches are placed. The bedrooms join on each side, and here the passenger may sleep as comfortably as he can, on a wooden platform covered by a thin straw mat. The vénda stands in a courtyard, where the horses arc fed. On first arriving, it was our custom to unsaddle the horses and give them their Indian corn; then, with a low bow, to ask the senhér to do us the favour to give us something to eat. “ Any- thing you choose, sir,” was his usual answer. For the few first times, vainly I thanked Providence for having guided us to so good aman. The conversation proceeding, the case universally became deplorable. “Any fish can you do us the favour of giving ?”—“Oh no, sir.’—“ Any soup?” No, sir.”—-“ Any bread ?”——“Oh no, sir.’ Any dried meat ?”—“Oh no, sir.” If we were lucky, by waiting a couple of hours, we obtained fowls, rice, and farinha. It not unfrequently happened that we were obliged to kill, with stones, the poultry for our own supper. When, thoroughly exhausted by fatigue and hunger, we timorously hinted that we should be glad of our meal, the pompous, and (though true) most unsatisfactory answer was, “It will be ready when it is ready.” If we had dared to remonstrate any further, we should have been told to proceed on our journey, as being too impertinent. The hosts are most ungracious and disagree- able in their manners ; their houses and their persons are often filthily dirty ; the want of the accommodation of forks, knives, and spoons is common; and I am sure no cottage or hovel in England could be found in a state so utterly destitute of every comfort. At Campos Novos, however, we fared sumptuously ; having rice and fowls, biscuit, wine, and spirits, for dinner ; coffee in the evening, and fish with coffee for breakfast. All this, with good food for the horses, only cost 2s. 6d. per head. Yet the host of this vénda, being asked if he knew anything of a whip which one of the party had lost, gruffly answered, “ How should I know? why did you not take care of it ?—I suppose the dogs have eaten it.” Leaving Mandctiba, we continued to pass through an in- . 22 RIO DE JANEIRO CHAP. tricate wilderness of lakes; in some of which were fresh, in others salt water shells. Of the former kind, I found a Limnza in great numbers in a lake, into which the inhabitants assured me that the sea enters once a year, and sometimes oftener, and makes the water quite salt. I have no doubt many interesting facts in relation to marine and fresh-water animals might be observed in this chain of lagoons which skirt the coast of Brazil. M. Gay? has stated that he found in the neighbourhood of Rio shells of the marine genera solen and mytilus, and fresh-water ampullariz, living together in brackish water. I also fre- quently observed in the lagoon near the Botanic Garden, where the water is only a little less salt than in the sea, a species of hydrophilus, very similar to a water-beetle common in the ditches of England: in the same lake the only shell belonged to a genus generally found in estuaries. Leaving the coast for a time, we again entered the forest. The trees were very lofty, and remarkable, compared with those of Europe, from the whiteness of their trunks. I see by my notebook, “wonderful and beautiful flowering parasites,” invari- ably struck me as the most novel object in these grand scenes. Travelling onwards we passed through tracts of pasturage, much injured by the enormous conical ants’ nests, which were nearly twelve feet high. They gave to the plain exactly the appear- ance of the mud volcanoes at Jorullo, as figured by Humboldt. We arrived at Engenhodo after it was dark, having been ten hours on horseback. J never ceased, during the whole journey, to be surprised at the amount of labour which the horses were capable of enduring ; they appeared also to recover from any in- jury much sooner than those of our English breed. The Vam- pire bat is often the cause of much trouble, by biting the horses on their withers. The injury is generally not so much owing to the loss of blood, as to the inflammation which the pressure of the saddle afterwards produces. The whole circumstance has lately been doubted in England; I was therefore fortunate in being present when one (Desmodus d’orbignyi, Wat.) was actually caught on a horse’s back. We were bivouacking late one evening near Coquimbo, in Chile, when my servant, noticing that one of the horses was very restive, went to see what was the matter, and fancying he could distinguish something 1 Annales des Sciences Naturelles for 1833. ( HI ARRIVAL AT SOCEGO 23 suddenly put his hand on the beast’s withers, and secured the vampire. In the morning the spot where the bite had been inflicted was casily distinguished from being slightly swollen and bloody. The third day afterwards we rode the horse, with- out any ill effects. April 13th—After three days’ travelling we arrived at Socégo, the estate of Senhédr Manucl Figuireda, a relation of one of our party. The house was simple, and, though like a barn in form, was well suited to the climate. In the sitting- room gilded chairs and sofas were oddly contrasted with the VAMPIRE BAT (DESMODUS D'ORBIGNYI). CAUGHT ON BACK OF DARWIN'S HORSE NEAR COQUIMBO, HEAD, FULL SIZE. whitewashed walls, thatched roof, and windows without glass. The house, together with the granaries, the stables, and work- shops for the blacks, who had been taught various trades, formed a rude kind of quadrangle ; in the centre of which a large pile of coffee was drying. These buildings stand on a little hill, overlooking the cultivated ground, and surrounded on every side by a wall of dark green luxuriant forest. The chief produce of this part of the country is coffee. Each tree is supposed to yield annually, on an average, two pounds; but some give as much as eight. Mandioca or cassava is likewise cultivated in 24 RIO DE JANEIRO CHAP. great quantity. Every part of this plant is useful: the leaves and stalks are eaten by the horses, and the roots are ground into a pulp, which, when pressed dry and baked, forms the farinha, the principal article of sustenance in the Brazils. It is a curious, though well-known fact, that the juice of this most nutritious plant is highly poisonous. A few years ago a cow died at this Fazénda, in consequence of having drunk some of it. Senhér Figuireda told me that he had planted, the year before, one bag of feijaé or beans, and three of rice; the former of which pro- duced eighty, and the latter three hundred and twenty fold. The pasturage supports a fine stock of cattle, and the woods are so full of game that a deer had been killed on each of the three previous days. This profusion of food showed itself at dinner, where, if the tables did not groan, the guests surely did: for each person is expected to eat of every dish. One day, having, as I thought, nicely calculated so that nothing should go away untasted, to my utter dismay a roast turkey and a pig appeared in all their substantial reality. During the meals, it was the employment of a man to drive out of the room sundry old hounds, and dozens of little black children, which crawled in together, at every opportunity. As long as the idea of slavery could be banished, there was something exceedingly fascinating in this simple and patriarchal style of living: it was such a perfect retirement and independence from the rest of the world. As soon as any stranger is seen arriving, a large bell is set tolling, and generally some small cannon are fired. The event is thus announced to the rocks and woods, but to nothing else. One morning I walked out an hour before daylight to admire the solemn stillness of the scene ; at last, the silence was broken by the morning hymn, raised on high by the whole body of the blacks ; and in this manner their daily work is generally begun. On such fazéndas as these, I have no doubt the slaves pass happy and contented lives. On Saturday and Sunday they work for themselves, and in this fertile climate the labour of two days is sufficient to support a man and his family for the whole week. April 14th—Leaving Socégo, we rode to another estate on the Rio Macae, which was the last patch of cultivated ground in that direction. The estate was two and a half miles long, and the owner had forgotten how many broad, Only a very small ¢ VIRGIN FOREST. to face p. 25. 11 APPEARANCE OF THE FORESTS 25 piece had been cleared, yet almost every acre was capable of yielding all the various rich productions of a tropical land. Considering the enormous area of Brazil, the proportion of cultivated ground can scarcely be considered as anything com- pared to that which is left in the state of nature: at some future age, how vast a population it will support! During the second day’s journey we found the road so shut up that it was necessary that a man should go ahead with a sword to cut away the creepers. The forest abounded with beautiful objects ; among which the tree ferns, though not large, were, from their bright green foliage, and the elegant curvature of their fronds, most worthy of admiration. In the evening it rained very heavily, and although the thermometer stood at 65°, I felt very cold. As soon as the rain ceased, it was curious to observe the extraordinary evaporation which commenced over the whole extent of the forest. At the height of a hundred feet the hills were buried in a dense white vapour, which rose like columns of smoke from the most thickly-wooded parts, and especially from the valleys. I observed this phenomenon on several occasions : I suppose it is owing to the large surface of foliage, previously heated by the sun’s rays. While staying at this estate, I was very nearly being an eyc- witness to one of those atrocious acts which can only take place in a slave country. Owing to a quarrel and a lawsuit, the owner was on the point of taking all the women and children from the male slaves, and selling them separately at the public auction at Rio. Interest, and not any feeling of compassion, prevented this act. Indeed, I do not believe the inhumanity of separating thirty families, who had lived together for many years, even occurred to the owner. Yet I will pledge myself, that in humanity and good feeling he was superior to the common run of men. It may be said there exists no limit to the blindness of interest and selfish habit. I may mention one very trifling anec- dote, which at the time struck me more forcibly than any story of cruelty. I was crossing a ferry with a negro who was un- commonly stupid. In endeavouring to make him understand, I talked loud, and made signs, in doing which I passed my hand neat his face. He, I suppose, thought I was in a passion, and was going to strike him; for instantly, with a frightened look and half-shut eyes, he dropped his hands. I shall never 26 RIO DE JANEIRO CHAP. forget my feclings of surprise, disgust, and shame, at seeing a great powerful man afraid even to ward Eo off a blow, directed, as he thought, at his Aa face. This man had been trained to a IP i degradation lower than the slavery of the (a most helpless animal. RAT April 18th.—In returning we spent two days at Socégo, and I employed them in collecting insects in the forest. The greater number of trees, although so lofty, are not more than three or four feet in circum- ference. There are, of course, a few of much greater dimension. Senhér Manuel was then making a canoe 70 feet in length from a solid trunk, which had originally been 110 feet long, and of great thickness. The contrast of palm trees, growing amidst the common branching kinds, never fails Hy to give the scene an intertropical character. Gg Here the woods were ornamented by the i Cabbage Palm—one of the most beautiful E of its family. With a stem so narrow H that it might be clasped with the two H hands, it waves its elegant head at the | 5 height of forty or fifty feet above the ground. The woody creepers, themselves covered by other creepers, were of great thickness: some which I measured were two feet in circumference. Many of the older trees presented a very curious appearance from the tresses of a liana hanging from their boughs, and resembling bundles of hay. If the eye was turned from the world of foliage above, to the ground beneath, it was attracted by the extreme elegance of the leaves of the ferns and mimose. The latter, in some parts, covered the surface with a brushwood only a few inches high, In walking across these thick beds of mimosz, a broad track was marked by the change of shade, produced by the drooping CABBAGE PALM. i DEPARTURE. FROM SOCEGO 27 of their sensitive petioles. It is easy to specify the individual objects of admiration in these grand scenes; but it is not possible to give an adequate idea of the higher feelings of wonder, astonishment, and devotion, which fill and elevate the mind. April 1oth.—Leaving Socégo, during the two first days we retraced our steps. It was very aN wearisome work, as the road generally ran across a glaring hot sandy plain, not far from the coast. I noticed that each time the horse put its foot on the fine siliceous sand, a gentle chirping noise was produced. On the third day we took a different line, and passed through the gay little village of Madre de Deds. This is one of the principal lines of road in Brazil ; yet it was in so bad a state that no wheel vehicle, excepting the clumsy bullock- waggon, could pass along. In our whole journey we did not cross a single bridge built of stone ; and those made of logs of wood were frequently so much out of repair that it was necessary to go on Q() one side to avoid them. All dis- WP YY ® ‘e) tances are inaccurately known. The ZR. S road is often marked by crosses, in Ss s bed the place of milestones, to signify @ [ &&¥ where human blood has been spilled. On the evening of the 23rd we arrived at Rio, having finished our pleasant little excursion, During the remainder of my stay at Rio, I resided in a cottage at Botofogo Bay. It was impossible to wish for anything more delightful than thus to MANDIOCA OR CASSAVA. 28 RIO DE JANEIRO CHAP. spend some weeks in so magnificent a country. In England any person fond of natural history enjoys in his walks a great advantage, by always having something to attract his attention ; but in these fertile climates, teeming with life, the attractions are so numerous, that he is scarcely able to walk at all. The few observations which I was enabled to make: were almost exclusively confined to the invertebrate animals. The existence of a division of the genus Planaria, which inhabits the dry land, interested me much. These animals are of so simple a structure, that Cuvier has arranged them with the intestinal worms, though never found within the bodies of other animals. Numerous species inhabit both salt and fresh water ; but those to which I allude were found, even in the drier parts of the forest, beneath logs of rotten wood, on which I believe they feed. In general form they resemble little slugs, but are very much _ nar- rower in proportion, and several of the species are beautifully coloured with longitudinal stripes. Their structure is very simple: near the middle of the under or crawling surface there are two small transverse slits, from the anterior one of which a funnel-shaped and highly irritable mouth can be protruded. For some time after the rest of the animal was completely dead from the effects of salt water or any other cause, this organ still retained its vitality. I found no less than twelve different species of terrestrial Planariz in different parts of the southern hemisphere! Some specimens which I obtained at Van Diemen’s Land, I kept alive for nearly two months, feeding them on rotten wood. Having cut one of them transversely into two nearly equal parts, in the course of a fortnight both had the shape of perfect animals. I had, however, so divided the body, that one of the halves con- tained both the inferior orifices, and the other, in consequence, none. In the course of twenty-five days from the operation, the more perfect half could not have been distinguished from any other specimen. The other had increased much in size; and towards its posterior end, a clear space was formed in the par- enchymatous mass, in which a rudimentary cup-shaped mouth could clearly be distinguished ; on the under surface, however, no corresponding slit was yet open. If the increased heat of the 1 T have described and named these species in the Avmals of Nat. Hist. vol. xiv, Pp. 241. M PLANARLE 29 weather, as we approached the equator, had not destroyed all the individuals, there can be no doubt that this last step would have completed its structure. Although so well known an ex- periment, it was interesting to watch the gradual production of every essential organ, out of the simple extremity of another animal. It is extremely difficult to preserve these Planariz ; as soon as the cessation of life allows the ordinary laws of change to act, their entire bodies become soft and fluid, with a rapidity which I have never seen equalled. I first visited the forest in which these Planariz were found, in company with an old Portuguese priest who took me out to hunt with him. The sport consisted in turning into the cover a few dogs, and then patiently waiting to fire at any animal which might appear. We were accompanied by the son of a neighbouring farmer—a good specimen of a wild Brazilian youth. He was dressed in a tattered old shirt and trousers, and had his head uncovered: he carried an old-fashioned gun and a large knife. The habit of carrying the knife is universal; and in traversing a thick wood it is almost necessary, on account of the creeping plants. The frequent occurrence of murder may be partly attributed to this habit. The Brazilians are so dexterous with the knife that they can throw it to some distance with pre- cision, and with sufficient force to cause a fatal wound. Ihave seen a number of little boys practising this art as a game of play, and from their skill in hitting an upright stick, they pro- mised well for more earnest attempts. My companion, the day before, had shot two large bearded monkeys. These animals have prehensile tails, the extremity of which, even after death, can support the whole weight of the body. One of them thus remained fast to a branch, and it was necessary to cut down a large tree to procure it. This was soon effected, and down came tree and monkey with an awful crash. Our day’s sport, besides the monkey, was confined to sundry small green parrots and a few toucans. I profited, however, by my acquaintance with the Portuguese padre, for on another occasion he gave me a fine specimen of the Yagouaroundi cat. Every one has heard of the beauty of the scenery near Boto- fogo. The house in which I lived was seated close beneath the well-known mountain of the Corcovado. It has been remarked, with much truth, that abruptly conical hills are characteristic of 30 RIO DE JANEIRO CHAP. the formation which Humboldt designates as gneiss-granite. Nothing can be more striking than the effect of these huge rounded masses of naked rock rising out of the most luxuriant vegetation. I was often interested by watching the clouds, which, rolling in from seaward, formed a bank just beneath the highest point of the Corcovado. This mountain, like most others, when thus partly veiled, appeared to rise to a far prouder elevation than its real height of 2300 feet. Mr. Daniell has observed, in his meteorological essays, that a cloud sometimes appears fixed on a mountain summit, while the wind continues to blow over it. The same phenomenon here presented a slightly different appear- ance. In this case the cloud was clearly seen to curl over, and rapidly pass by the summit, and yet was neither diminished nor increased in size. The sun was setting, and a gentle southerly breeze, striking against the southern side of the rock, mingled its current with the colder air above ; and the vapour was thus condensed: but as the light wreaths of cloud passed over the ridge, and came within the influence of the warmer atmosphere of the northern sloping bank, they were immediately redissolved. The climate, during the months of May and June, or the beginning of winter, was delightful. The mean temperature, from observations taken at nine o'clock, both morning and evening, was only 72°. It often rained heavily, but the drying southerly winds soon again rendered the walks pleasant. One morning, in the course of six hours, 1.6 inches of rain fell. As this storm passed over the forests which surround the Corco- vado, the sound produced by the drops pattering on the countless multitude of leaves was very remarkable ; it could be heard at the distance of a quarter of a mile, and was like the rushing of a great body of water. After the hotter days, it was delicious to sit quietly in the garden and watch the evening pass into night. Nature, in these climes, chooses her vocalists from more humble performers than in Europe. A small frog, of the genus Hyla, sits on a blade of grass about an inch above the surface of the water, and sends forth a pleasing chirp: when several are together they sing in harmony on different notes. I had some difficulty in catching a specimen of this frog. The genus Hyla has its toes terminated by small suckers; and I found this animal could crawl up a pane of glass, when placed abso- I PHOSPHORESCENT INSECTS 31 lutely perpendicular. Various cicada and crickets, at the same time, keep up a ceaseless shrill cry, but which, softened by the distance, is not unpleasant. Every evening after dark this great concert commenced ; and often have I sat listening to it, until my attention has been drawn away by some curious passing insect. At these times the fireflies are seen flitting about from hedge to hedge. On a dark night the light can be seen at about two hundred paces distant. It is remarkable that in all the different kinds of glowworms, shining elaters, and various marine animals (such as the crustacea, medusa, nereidz, a coralline of the genus Clytia, and Pyrosoma), which I have observed, the light has been of a well-marked green colour. All the fireflies, which I caught here, belonged to the Lampyride (in which family the English glowworm is included), and the greater num- ber of specimens were of Lampyris occidentalis.’ I found that this insect emitted the most brilliant flashes when irritated : in the intervals, the abdominal rings were obscured. The flash was almost coinstantaneous in the two rings, but it was just perceptible first in the anterior one. The shining matter was fluid and very adhesive: little spots, where the skin had been torn, continued bright with a slight scintillation, whilst the uninjured parts were obscured. When the insect was decapitated the rings remained uninterruptedly bright, but not so brilliant as before: local irritation with a needle always increased the vividness of the light. The rings in one instance retained their luminous property nearly twenty-four hours after the death of the insect. From these facts it would appear prob- able, that the animal has only the power of concealing or extinguishing the light for short intervals, and that at other times the display is involuntary. On the muddy and wet gravel- walks I found the larve of this lampyris in great numbers: they resembled in general form the female of the English glowworm. These larvz possessed but feeble luminous powers; very differently from their parents, on the slightest touch they feigned death, and ceased to shine; nor did irrita- tion excite any fresh display. I kept several of them alive for some time: their tails are very singular organs, for they act, by a well-fitted contrivance, as suckers or organs of attachment, 1 T am greatly indebted to Mr. Waterhouse for his kindness in naming for me this and many other insects, and in giving me much valuable assistance. 32 RIO DE JANEIRO CHAP. and likewise as reservoirs for saliva, or some such fluid. I repeatedly fed them on raw meat; and I invariably observed, that every now and then the extremity of the tail was applied to the mouth, and a drop of fluid exuded on the meat, which was then in the act of being consumed. The tail, notwith- standing so much practice, does not seem to be able to find its way to the mouth; at least the neck was always touched first, and apparently as a guide. When we were at Bahia, an elater or beetle (Pyrophorus luminosus, Illig.) seemed the most common luminous insect. The light in this case was also rendered more brilliant by irritation. I amused myself one day by observing the spring- ing powers of this insect, which have not, as it appears to me, been properly described.1_ The elater, when placed on its back and preparing to spring, moved its head and thorax backwards, so that the pectoral spine was drawn out, and rested on the edge of its sheath, The same backward movement being con- tinued, the spine, by the full action of the muscles, was bent like a spring; and the insect at this moment rested on the extremity of its head and wing-cases. The effort being suddenly relaxed, the head and thorax flew up, and in consequence, the base of the wing-cases struck the supporting surface with such force, that the insect by the reaction was jerked. upwards to the height of one or two inches. The pro- jecting points of the thorax, and the sheath of the spine, served to steady the whole body during the spring. In the descriptions which I have read, sufficient stress does not appear to have been laid on the elasticity of the spine: so sudden a spring could not be the result of simple muscular contraction, without the aid of some mechanical contrivance. On several occasions I enjoyed some short but most plea- sant excursions in the neighbouring country. One day I went to the Botanic Garden, where many plants, well known for their great utility, might be seen growing. The leaves of the camphor, pepper, cinnamon, and clove trees were delightfully aromatic ; and the bread-fruit, the jaca, and the mango, vied with each other in the magnificence of their foliage. The land- scape in the neighbourhood of Bahia almost takes its character 1 Kirby’s Zvtomology, vol. ii. ps 317. eo «¢ 59H f 07 - es as xvf om " BOTANIC GARDEN 33 from the two latter trees. Before secing them, I had no idea that any trees could cast so black a shade on the ground. Both of them bear to the evergreen vegetation of these climates the same kind of relation which laurels and hollies in England do to the lighter green of the deciduous trees. It may be observed that the houses within the tropics are surrounded by the most beautiful forms of vegetation, because many of them are at the same time most useful to man. Who can doubt that these qualities are united in the banana, the cocoa-nut, the many kinds of palm, the orange, and the bread-fruit tree ? During this day I was particularly struck with a remark of Humboldt’s, who often alludes to “the thin vapour which, with- out changing the transparency of the air, renders its tints more harmonious, and softens its effects.” This is an appearance which I have never observed in the temperate zones. The atmosphere, seen through a short space of half or three-quarters of a mile, was perfectly lucid, but at a greater distance all colours were blended into a most beautiful haze, of a pale French gray, mingled with a little blue. The condition of the atmosphere between the morning and about noon, when the effect was most evident, had undergone little change, excepting in its dryness. In the interval, the difference between the dew point and temperature had increased from 7°.5 to 17°. On another occasion I started early and walked to the Gavia, or topsail mountain. The air was delightfully cool and fragrant ; and the drops of dew still glittered on the leaves of the large liliaceous plants, which shaded the streamlets of clear water. Sitting down on a block of granite, it was delightful to watch the various insects and birds as they flew past. The humming-bird seems particularly fond of such shady retired spots. Whenever I saw these little creatures buzzing round a flower, with their wings vibrating so rapidly as to be scarcely visible, I was reminded of the sphinx moths: their movements and habits are indeed in many respects very similar. Following a pathway I entered a noble forest, and from a height of five or six hundred feet, one of those splendid views was presented, which are so common on every side of Rio. At this elevation the landscape attains its most brilliant tint; and every form, every shade, so completely surpasses in magnificence all that the European has ever beheld in his own country, that D 34 RIO DE JANEIRO CHAP. he knows not how to express his feelings. The general effect frequently recalled to my mind the gayest scenery of the Opera- house or the great theatres. I never returned from these excur- sions empty handed. This day I found a specimen of a curious fungus, called Hymenophallus. Most people know the English Phallus, which in autumn taints the air with its odious smell: this, however, as the entomologist is aware, is to some of our beetles a delightful fragrance. Sowas it here; for a Strongylus, attracted by the odour, alighted on the fungus as I carried it in my hand. We here see in two distant countries a similar relation between plants and insects of the same families, though the species of both are different. When man is the agent in introducing into a country a new species this relation is often broken: as one instance of this I may mention that the leaves of the cabbages and lettuces, which in England afford food to such a multitude of slugs and caterpillars, in the gardens near Rio are untouched. During our stay at Brazil I made a large collection of in- sects. A few general observations on the comparative import- ance of the different orders may be interesting to the English entomologist. The large and brilliantly-coloured Lepidoptera bespeak the zone they inhabit, far more plainly than any other race of animals. I allude only to the butterflies ; for the moths, contrary to what might have been expected from the rankness of the vegetation, certainly appeared in much fewer numbers than in our own temperate regions. I was much surprised at the habits of Papilio feronia* This butterfly is not uncommon, and generally frequents the orange-groves. Although a high flier, yet it very frequently alights on the trunks of trees. On these occasions its head is invariably placed downwards; and its wings are expanded ina horizontal plane, instead of being folded vertically, as is commonly the case. This is the only butterfly which I have ever seen that uses its legs for running. Not being aware of this fact, the insect, more than once, as I cautiously approached with my forceps, shuffled on one side just as the instrument was on the point of closing, and thus escaped. But a far more singular fact is the power which this species possesses of making a noise.” Several times when a pair, 1 See page 39. 2 Mr. Doubleday has lately described (before the Entomological Society, March 3rd, 1845 ) a peculiar structure in the wings of this butterfly, which seems to be the 1 COLEOPTERA 35 probably male and female, were chasing each other in an irregular course, they passed within a few yards of me; and I distinctly heard a clicking noise, similar to that produced by a toothed wheel passing under a spring catch. The noise was continued at short intervals, and could be distinguished at about twenty yards’ distance: I am certain there is no error in the observation. I was disappointed in the general aspect of the Coleoptera. The number of minute and obscurely-coloured beetles is exceed- ingly great.’ The cabinets of Europe can, as yet, boast only of the larger species from tropical climates. It is sufficient to disturb the composure of an entomologist’s mind, to look for- ward to the future dimensions of a complete catalogue. The carnivorous beetles, or Carabide, appear in extremely few numbers within the tropics: this is the more remarkable when compared to the case of the carnivorous quadrupeds, which are so abundant in hot countries. I was struck with this observa- tion both on entering Brazil, and when I saw the many elegant and active forms of the Harpalide reappearing on the temper- ate plains of La Plata) Do the very numerous spiders and rapacious Hymenoptera supply the place of the carnivorous beetles? The carrion-feeders and Brachelytra are very un- common; on the other hand, the Rhyncophora and Chryso- melidz, all of which depend on the vegetable world for sub- sistence, are present in astonishing numbers. I do not here refer to the number of different species, but to that of the individual insects ; for on this it is that the most striking char- acter in the entomology of different countries depends. The orders Orthoptera and Hemiptera are particularly numerous ; as likewise is the stinging division of the Hymenoptera ; the bees, perhaps, being excepted. A person, on first entering a tropical means of its making its noise. Ie says, ‘‘ It is remarkable for having a sort of drum at the base of the fore wings, between the costal nervure and the subcostal. These two nervures, moreover, have a peculiar screw-like diaphragm or vessel in the interior.” I find in Langsdorffs travels (in the years 1803-7, p. 74) it is said, that in the island of St. Catherine’s on the coast of Brazil, a butterfly called Februa Hoffmanseggi makes a noise, when flying away, like a rattle. 1 I may mention, as a common instance of one day’s (June 23rd ) collecting, when I was not attending particularly to the Coleoptera, that I caught sixty-eight species of that order. Among these, there were only two of the Carabidee, four Brachelytra, fifteen Rhyncophora, and fourteen of the Chrysomelidx. Thirty-seven species of Arachnide, which I brought home, will be sufficient to prove that I was not paying overmuch attention to the generally favoured order of Coleoptera, 36 RIO DE JANEIRO CHAP. forest, is astonished at the labours of the ants: well-beaten paths branch off in every direction, on which an army of never- failing foragers may be seen, some going forth, and others returning, burdened with pieces of green leaf, often larger than their own bodies. A small dark-coloured ant sometimes migrates in countless numbers. One day, at Bahia, my attention was drawn by ob- serving many spiders, cockroaches, and other insects, and some lizards, rushing in the greatest agitation across a bare piece of ground. A little way behind, every stalk and leaf was black- ened by a small ant. The swarm having crossed the bare space, divided itself, and descended an old wall. By this means many insects were fairly enclosed; and the efforts which the poor little creatures made to extricate themselves from such a death were wonderful. When the ants came to the road they changed their course, and in narrow files reascended the wall. Having placed a small stone so as to intercept one of the lines,. the whole body attacked it, and then immediately retired. Shortly afterwards another body came to the charge, and again having failed to make any impression, this line of march was entirely given up. By going an inch round, the file might have avoided the stone, and this doubtless would have happened, if it had been originally there: but having been attacked, the lion-hearted little warriors scorned the idea of yielding. Certain wasp-like insects, which construct in the corners of the verandahs clay cells for their larve, are very numerous in the neighbourhood of Rio. These cells they stuff full of half- dead spiders and caterpillars, which they seem wonderfully to know how to sting to that degree as to leave them paralysed but alive, until their eggs are hatched ; and the larve feed on the horrid mass of powerless, half-killed victims—a sight which has been described by an enthusiastic naturalist? as curious and pleasing! I was much interested one day by watching a deadly contest between a Pepsis and a large spider of the genus Lycosa. The wasp made a sudden dash at its prey, and then flew away: the spider was evidently wounded, for, trying to escape, it rolled down a little slope, but had still strength 1Jn a MS. in the British Museum by Mr. Abbott, who made his observations in Georgia ; see Mr. A. White’s paper in the Annals of Nat. Hist. vol. vii. p. 472. Lieut. Hutton has described a sphex with similar habits in India, in the Journal of the Asiatic Society, vol. i. p. 555+ 1 SPIDERS 37 sufficient to crawl into a thick tuft of grass. The wasp soon returned, and seemed surprised at not immediately finding its victim. It then commenced as regular a hunt as ever hound did after fox; making short semicircular casts, and all the time rapidly vibrating its wings and antenne. The spider, though well con- cealed, was soon discovered; and the wasp, evidently still afraid of its adversary’s jaws, after much manceuvring, inflicted two stings on the under side of its thorax. At last, carefully ex- amining with its antennz the now motionless spider, it proceeded to drag away the body. But I stopped both tyrant and prey.! The number of spiders, in proportion to other insects, is here compared with England very much larger; perhaps more so than with any other division of the articulate animals. The variety of species among the jumping spiders appears almost infinite. The genus, or rather family of Epeira, is here characterised by many singular forms; some species have pointed coriaceous shells, others enlarged and spiny tibia. Every path in the forest is barricaded with the strong yellow web of a species, belonging to the same division with the Epeira clavipes of Fabricius, which was formerly said by Sloane to make, in the West Indies, webs so strong as to catch birds. A small and pretty kind of spider, with very long fore-legs, and which appears to belong to an undescribed genus, lives as a parasite on almost every one of these webs. I suppose it is too insignificant to be noticed by the great Epeira, and is there- fore allowed to prey on the minute insects, which, adhering to the lines, would otherwise be wasted. When frightened, this little spider either feigns death by extending its front legs, or suddenly drops from the web. A large Epeira of the same division with Epeira tuberculata and conica is extremely common, especially in dry situations. Its web, which is generally placed among the great leaves of the common agave, is sometimes strengthened near the centre by a pair or even four zigzag ribbons, which connect two adjoining rays. When any large insect, as a grasshopper or wasp, is caught, the spider, by a dexterous movement, makes it revolve ' Don Felix Azara (vol. i. p. 175), mentioning a hymenopterous insect, probably of the same genus, says he saw it dragging a dead spider through tall grass, in a straight line to its nest, which was one hundred and sixty-three paces distant. He adds that the wasp, in order to find the road, every now and then made “ demi-tours d’environ trois palmes.” 38 RIO DE JANEIRO CHAP. very rapidly, and at the same time emitting a band of threads from its spinners, soon envelops its prey in a case like the cocoon of a silkworm. The spider now examines the power- less victim, and gives the fatal bite on the hinder part of its thorax; then retreating, patiently waits till the poison has taken effect. The virulence of this poison may be judged of from the fact that in half a minute I opened the mesh, and found a large wasp quite lifeless. This Epeira always stands with its head downwards near the centre of the web. When disturbed, it acts differently according to circumstances: if there is a thicket below, it suddenly falls down ; and I have distinctly seen the thread from the spinners lengthened by the animal while yet stationary, as preparatory to its fall. If the ground is clear beneath, the Epeira seldom falls, but moves quickly through a central passage from one to the other side. When still further disturbed, it practises a most curious manceuvre: standing in the middle, it violently jerks the web, which is attached to elastic twigs, till at last the whole acquires such a rapid vibratory movement, that even the outline of the spider’s body becomes indistinct. It is well known that most of the British spiders, when a large insect is caught in their webs, endeavour to cut the lines and liberate their prey, to save their nets from being entirely spoiled. I once, however, saw in a hot-house in Shropshire a large female wasp caught in the irregular web of a quite small spider ; and this spider, instead of cutting the web, most per- severingly continued to entangle the body, and especially the wings, of its prey. The wasp at first aimed in vain repeated thrusts with its sting at its little antagonist. Pitying the wasp, after allowing it to struggle for more than an hour, I killed it and put it back into the web. The spider soon returned ; and an hour afterwards I was much surprised to find it with its jaws buried in the orifice through which the sting is protruded by the living wasp. I drove the spider away two or three times, but for the next twenty-four hours I always found it again sucking at the same place. The spider became much distended by the juices of its prey, which was many times larger than itself. I may here just mention that I found, near St. Fé Bajada, many large black spiders, with ruby-coloured marks on their backs, having gregarious habits. The webs were placed verti- a SPIDERS 39 cally, as is invariably the case with the genus Epeira: they were separated from cach other by a space of about two fect, but were all attached to certain common lines, which were of great Iength, and extended to all parts of the community. In this manner the tops of some large bushes were encompassed by the united nets. Azara’ has described a gregarious spider in Paraguay, which Walckenaer thinks must be a Theridion, but probably it is an Epcira, and perhaps even the same spccics with mine. I cannot, however, recollect sccing a central nest as large as a hat, in which, during autumn, when the spiders dic, Azara says the eggs are deposited. As all the spiders which I saw were of the same size, they must have been nearly of the same age. This gregarious habit, in so typical a genus as Epeira, among insects, which are so bloodthirsty and _ solitary that even the two sexes attack each other, is a very singular fact. In a lofty valley of the Cordillera, near Mendoza, I found another spider with a singularly-formed web, Strong lines radiated in a vertical plane from a common centre, where the insect had its station; but only two of the rays were connected by a symmetrical mesh-work; so that the net, instead of being, as is generally the case, circular, consisted of a wedge-shaped segment. All the webs were similarly constructed. 1 Azara’s Foyage, vol. i. p. 213. Wage, I re) DARWIN'S PAPILIO FERONIA, 1833, NOW CALLED AGERONIA PERONIA, 1889. HYDROCH/ERUS CAPYBARA OR WATER-HOG, CHAPTER III Monte Video—Maldonado—Excursion to R. Polanco—Lazo and Bolas—Partridges— Absence of Trees—Deer—Capybara, or River Hog—Tucutuco—Molothms, cuckoo-like habits — Tyrant - flycatcher — Mocking- bird — Carrion Hawks — Tubes formed by Lightning—House struck. MALDONADO July 5th, 1832.—In the morning we got under way, and stood out of the splendid harbour of Rio de Janeiro. In our passage to the Plata, we saw nothing particular, excepting on one day a great shoal of porpoises, many hundreds in number. The whole sea was in places furrowed by them; and a most extraordinary spectacle was presented, as hundreds, proceeding together by jumps, in which their whole bodies were exposed, thus cut the water. When the ship was running nine knots an hour, these animals could cross and recross the bows with the CHAP. III ESTUARY OF THE PLATA 41 greatest easc, and then dash away right ahead. As soon as we entered the estuary of the Plata, the weather was very unsettled. One dark night we were surrounded by numcrous seals and penguins, which made such strange noises, that the officer on watch reported he could hear the cattle bellowing on shore. On a second night we witnessed a_ splendid scene of natural fireworks; the mast-head and yard-arm ends shone with St. Elmo’s light; and the form of the vane could almost be traced, as if it had been rubbed with phos- phorus. The sea was so highly luminous, that the tracks of the penguins were marked by a fiery wake, and the dark- ness of the sky was momentarily illuminated by the most vivid lightning. When within the mouth of the river, I was interested by observing how slowly the waters of the sea and river mixed. The latter, muddy and discoloured, from its less specific gravity, floated on the surface of the salt water. This was curiously exhibited in the wake of the vessel, where a line of blue water was seen mingling in little eddies with the adjoining fluid. July 26th—We anchored at Monte Video. The Beagle was employed in surveying the extreme southern and eastern coasts of America, south of the Plata, during the two suc- ceeding years. To prevent useless repetitions, I will extract those parts of my journal which refer to the same districts, without always attending to the order in which we visited them. MALDONADO is situated on the northern bank of the Plata, and not very far from the mouth of the estuary. It is a most quiet, forlorn, little town; built, as is universally the case in these countries, with the streets running at right angles to each other, and having in the middle a large plaza or square, which, from its size, renders the scantiness of the population more evident. It possesses scarcely any trade; the exports being confined to a few hides and living cattle. The inhabitants are chiefly landowners, together with a few shopkeepers and the necessary tradesmen, such as blacksmiths and carpenters, who do nearly all the business for a circuit of fifty miles round. The town is separated from the river by a band of sand-hillocks, about a mile broad: it is surrounded on all other sides by an 42 MALDONADO CHAP. open slightly-undulating country, covered by one uniform layer of fine green turf, on which countless herds of cattle, sheep, and horses graze. There is very little land cultivated even close to the town. A few hedges made of cacti and agave mark out where some wheat or Indian corn has been planted. The features of the country are very similar along the whole northern bank of the Plata. The only difference is, that here the granitic hills are a little bolder. The scenery is very uninteresting ; there is scarcely a house, an enclosed piece of ground, or even a tree, to give it an air of cheerfulness. Yet, after being imprisoned for some time in a ship, there is a charm in the unconfined feeling of walking over boundless plains of turf. Moreover, if your view is limited to a small space, many objects possess beauty. Some of the smaller birds are brilliantly coloured ; and the bright green sward, browsed short by the cattle, is ornamented by dwarf flowers, among which a plant, looking like the daisy, claimed the place of an old friend. What would a florist say to whole tracts so thickly covered by the Verbena melindres, as, even at a distance, to appear of the most gaudy scarlet ? I stayed ten weeks at Maldonado, in which time a nearly perfect collection of the animals, birds, and reptiles, was pro- cured. Before making any observations respecting them, I will give an account of a little excursion I made as far as the river Polanco, which is about seventy miles distant, in a northerly direction. I may mention, as a proof how cheap everything is in this country, that I paid only two dollars a day or eight shillings, for two men, together with a troop of about a dozen riding-horses. My companions were well armed with pistols and sabres; a precaution which I thought rather unnecessary ; but the first piece of news we heard was, that, the day before, a traveller from Monte Video had been found dead on the road, with his throat cut. This happened close to a cross, the record of a former murder. On the first night we slept at a retired little country-house ; and there I soon found out that I possessed two or three articles, especially a pocket compass, which created unbounded astonishment. In every house I was asked to show the compass, and by its aid, together with a map, to point out the direction Mt IGNORANCE OF THE PEOPLE 43 of various places. It excited the liveliest admiration that I, a perfect stranger, should know the road (for direction and road are synonymous in this open country) to places where I had never been. At one house a young woman who was ill in bed, sent to entreat me to come and show her the compass. If their surprise was great, mine was greater, to find such ignorance among people who possessed their thousands of cattle, and “estancias ”” of great extent. It can only be accounted for by the circumstance that this retired part of the country is seldom visited by foreigners. I was asked whether the carth or sun moved ; whether it was hotter or colder to the north ; where Spain was, and many other such questions. The greater number of the inhabitants had an indistinct idea that England, London, and North America, were different names for the same place; but the better informed well knew that London and North America were separate countries close together, and that England was a large town in London! I carried with me some promethean matches, which I ignited by biting ; it was thought so wonderful that a man should strike fire with his teeth, that it was usual to collect the whole family to see it: I was once offered a dollar for a single one. Washing my face in the morning caused much speculation at the village of Las Minas ; a superior tradesman closely cross-questioned me about so singular a practice ; and likewise why on board we wore our beards ; for he had heard from my guide that we did so. He eyed me with much suspicion; perhaps he had heard of ablutions in the Mahomedan religion, and knowing me to be a heretic, probably he came to the conclusion that all heretics were Turks. It is the general custom in this country to ask for a night’s lodging at the first convenient house. The astonish- ment at the compass, and my other feats in jugglery, was to a certain degree advantageous, as with that, and the long stories my guides told of my breaking stones, knowing venomous from harmless snakes, collecting insects, etc. I repaid them for their hospitality. I am writing as if I had been among the inhabitants of Central Africa; Banda Oriental would not be flattered by the comparison; but such were my feelings at the time. The next day we rode to the village of Las Minas. The country was rather more hilly, but otherwise continued the 44 MALDONADO CHAP, same ; an inhabitant of the Pampas no doubt would have con- sidered it as truly alpine. The country is so thinly inhabited, that during the whole day we scarcely met a single person. Las Minas is much smaller even than Maldonado. It is seated on a little plain, and is surrounded by low rocky mountains. It is of the usual symmetrical form; and with its whitewashed church standing in the centre, had rather a pretty appearance. The outskirting houses rose out of the plain like isolated beings, without the accompaniment of gardens or courtyards. This is generally the case in the country, and all the houses have, in consequence, an uncomfortable aspect. At night we stopped at a pulperia, or drinking-shop. During the evening a great number of Gauchos came in to drink spirits and smoke cigars: their appearance is very striking; they are generally tall and handsome, but with a proud and dissolute expression of countenance. They frequently wear their moustaches, and long black hair curling down their backs. With their brightly- coloured garments, great spurs clanking about their heels, and knives stuck as daggers (and often so used) at their waists, they look a very different race of men from what might be expected from their name of Gauchos, or simple countrymen. Their politeness is excessive ; they never drink their spirits without expecting you to taste it; but whilst making their exceedingly graceful bow, they seem quite as ready, if occasion offered, to cut your throat. On the third day we pursued rather an irregular course, as. I was employed in examining some beds of marble. On the: fine plains of turf we saw many ostriches (Struthio rhea). Some of the flocks contained as many as twenty or thirty birds. These, when standing on any little eminence, and seen against the clear sky, presented a very noble appearance. I never met with such tame ostriches in any other part of the country: it was easy to gallop up within a short distance of them; but then, expanding their wings, they made all sail right before the wind, and soon left the horse astern. At night we came to the house of Don Juan Fuentes, a rich landed proprietor, but not personally known to either of my companions. On approaching the house of a stranger, it is usual to follow several little points of etiquette: riding up slowly to the door, the salutation of Ave Maria is given, and I POINTS OF ETIQUETTE 45 until somebody comes out and asks you to alight, it is not customary even to get off your horse: the formal answer of the owner is, “sin pecado concebida”—that is, conceived without sin. Having entered the house, some general conversation is kept up for a few minutes, till permission is asked to pass the night there. This is granted as a matter of course. The stranger then takes his meals with the family, and a room is assigned him, where with the horsecloths belonging to his recado (or saddle of the Pampas) he makes his bed. It is curious how similar circumstances produce such similar results in manners. At the Cape of Good Hope the same hospitality, and very nearly the same points of etiquette, are universally observed. The difference, however, between the character of the Spaniard and that of the Dutch boor is shown, by the former never ask- ing his guest a single question beyond the strictest rule of politeness, whilst the honest Dutchman demands where he has been, where he is going, what is his business, and even how many brothers, sisters, or children he may happen to have. Shortly after our arrival at Don Juan’s one of the large herds of cattle was driven in towards the house, and three beasts were picked out to be slaughtered for the supply of the establishment. These half-wild cattle are very active; and knowing full well the fatal lazo, they led the horses a long and laborious chase. After witnessing the rude wealth displayed in the number of cattle, men, and horses, Don Juan’s miserable house was quite curious. The floor consisted of hardened mud, and the windows were without glass ; the sitting-room boasted only of a few of the roughest chairs and stools, with a couple of tables. The supper, although several strangers were present, consisted of two huge piles, one of roast beef, the other of boiled, with some pieces of pumpkin: besides this latter there was no other vegetable, and not even a morsel of bread. For drinking, a large earthenware jug of water served the whole party. Yet this man was the owner of several square miles of land, of which nearly every acre would produce corn, and, with a little trouble, all the common vegetables. The evening was spent in smoking, with a little impromptu singing, accompanied by the guitar. The signoritas all sat together in one corner of the room, and did not sup with the men. So many works have been written about these countries, 46 MALDONADO CHAP. that it is almost superfluous to describe either the lazo or the bolas. The lazo consists of a very strong, but thin, well-plaited rope, made of raw hide. One end is attached to the broad surcingle, which fastens together the complicated gear of the recado, or saddle used in the Pampas ; the other is terminated by a small ring of iron or brass, by which a noose can be formed. The Gaucho, when he is going to use the lazo, keeps a small coil in his bridle-hand, and in the other holds the running noose, which is made very large, generally having a diameter of about eight feet. This he whirls round his head, and by the dexterous movement of his wrist keeps the noose open ; then, throwing it, he causes it to fall on any particular spot he chooses. The lazo, when not used, is tied up in a small coil to the after part of the recado. The bolas, or balls, RECADO OR SURCINGLE OF GAUCHO. are of two kinds: the simplest, which is chiefly used for catch- ing ostriches, consists of two round stones, covered with leather, and united by a thin plaited thong, about eight feet long! The other kind differs only in having three balls united by the thongs to a common centre. The Gaucho holds the smallest of the three in his hand, and whirls the other two round and round his head ; then, taking aim, sends them like chain shot revolving through the air. The balls no sooner strike any object, than, winding round it, they cross each other, and become firmly hitched. The size and weight of the balls varies, according to the purpose for which they are made: when of stone, although not larger than an apple, they are sent with such force as sometimes to break the leg even of a horse. I have seen the balls made of wood, and as large as a turnip, for the sake of catching these animals without injuring them. The balls are sometimes made of iron, and these can be hurled to 1 See page 248. boa THROWING THE BOLAS 47 the greatest distance. The main difficulty in using either lazo or bolas is to ride so well as to be able at full speed, and while suddenly turning about, to whirl them so steadily round the head, as to take aim: on foot any person would soon learn the art. One day, as I was amusing myself by galloping and whirling the balls round my head, by accident the free one struck a bush ; and its revolving motion being thus destroyed, it immediately fell to the ground, and like magic caught one hind leg of my horse; the other ball was then jerked out of my hand, and the horse fairly secured. Luckily he was an old practised animal, and knew what it meant; otherwise he would probably have kicked till he had thrown himself down. The Gauchos roared with laughter; they cried out that they had seen every sort of animal caught, but had never before seen a man caught by himself. During the two succeeding days, I reached the farthest point which I was anxious to examine. The country wore the same aspect, till at last the fine green turf became more weari- some than a dusty turnpike road. We everywhere saw great numbers of partridges (Nothura major). These birds do not go in coveys, nor do they conceal themselves like the English kind. It appears a very silly bird. A man on horseback by riding round and round in a circle, or rather in a spire, so as to approach closer each time, may knock on the head as many as he pleases. The more common method is to catch them with a running noose, or little lazo, made of the stem of an ostrich’s feather, fastened to the end of a long stick. A boy on a quiet old horse will frequently thus catch thirty or forty in a day. In Arctic North America’ the Indians catch the Varying Hare by walking spirally round and round it, when on its form: the middle of the day is reckoned the best time, when the sun is high, and the shadow of the hunter not very long. On our return to Maldonado, we followed rather a different line of road. Near Pan de Azucar, a landmark well known to all those who have sailed up the Plata, I stayed a day at the house of a most hospitable old Spaniard. Early in the morning we ascended the Sierra de las Animas. By the aid of the rising sun the scenery was almost picturesque. To the west- 1 Hearne’s Journey, p. 383. 48 MALDONADO CHAP. ward the view extended over an immense level plain as far as the Mount, at Monte Video, and to the eastward, over the mammillated country of Maldonado. On the summit of the mountain there were several small heaps of stones, which evidently had lain there for many years. My companion assured me that they were the work of the Indians in the old time. The heaps were similar, but on a much smaller scale, to those so commonly found on the mountains of Wales. The desire to signalise any event, on the highest point of the neighbouring land, seems a universal passion with mankind. At the present day, not a single Indian, either civilised or wild, exists in this part of the province; nor am I aware that the former inhabitants have left behind them any more permanent records than these insignificant piles on the summit of the Sierra de las Animas. The general, and almost entire absence of trees in Banda Oriental is remarkable. Some of the rocky hills are partly covered by thickets, and on the banks of the larger streams, especially to the north of Las Minas, willow-trees are not un- common. Near the Arroyo Tapes I heard of a wood of palms ; and one of these trees, of considerable size, I saw near the Pan de Azucar, in lat. 35°. These, and the trees planted by the Spaniards, offer the only exceptions to the general scarcity of wood. Among the introduced kinds may be enumerated poplars, olives, peach, and other fruit trees: the peaches succeed so well, that they afford the main supply of firewood to the city of Buenos Ayres. Extremely level countries, such as the Pampas, seldom appear favourable to the growth of trees. This may possibly be attributed either to the force of the winds, or the kind of drainage. In the nature of the land, however, around Maldonado, no such reason is apparent; the rocky mountains afford protected situations, enjoying various kinds of soil; streamlets of water are common at the bottoms of nearly every valley ; and the clayey nature of the earth seems adapted to retain moisture. It has been inferred, with much probability, that the presence of woodland is generally determined?! by the annual amount of moisture ; yet in this province abundant and heavy rain falls during the winter; and the summer, though 1 Maclaren, art. ‘* America,” Evcyclop. Britann, mt CLIMATE AND VEGETATION 49 dry, is not so in any excessive degree.’ We see nearly the whole of Australia covered by lofty trees, yet that country possesses a far more arid climate. Hence we must look to some other and unknown cause. Confining our view to South America, we should certainly be tempted to believe that trees flourished only under a very humid climate; for the limit of the forest-land follows, in a most remarkable manner, that of the damp winds. In the southern part of the continent, where the western gales, charged with moisture from the Pacific, prevail, every island on the broken west coast, from lat. 38° to the extreme point of Tierra del Fuego, is densely covered by impenetrable forests. On the eastern side of the Cordillera, over the same extent of latitude, where a blue sky and a fine climate prove that the atmosphere has been deprived of its moisture by passing over the mountains, the arid plains of Patagonia support a most scanty vegetation. In the more northern parts of the continent, within the limits of the constant south-eastern trade wind, the eastern side is ornamented by magnificent forests; whilst the western coast, from lat. 4° S. to lat. 32° S., may be described as a desert: on this western coast, northward of lat. 4° S., where the trade wind loses its regularity, and heavy torrents of rain fall periodically, the shores of the Pacific, so utterly desert in Peru, assume near Cape Blanco the character of luxuriance so celebrated at Guayaquil and Panama. Hence in the southern and northern parts of the continent, the forest and desert lands occupy reversed positions with respect to the Cordillera, and these posi- tions are apparently determined by the direction of the prevalent winds. In the middle of the continent there is a broad intermediate band, including central Chile and the provinces of La Plata, where the rain-bringing winds have not to pass over lofty mountains, and where the land is neither a desert nor covered by forests. But even the rule, if confined to South s\merica, of trees flourishing only in a climate rendered humid by rain-bearing winds, has a strongly-marked exception in the case of the Falkland Islands. These islands, situated in the same latitude with Tierra del Fuego and only between two and three hundred miles distant from it, having a nearly similar 1 Azara says, ‘‘Je crois que la quantité annuelle des pluies est, dans toutes ces contrées, plus considérable qu’en Espagne.” —Vol. i, p. 36. E 50 JLALDON ADO CHAP, climate, with a geological formation almost identical, with favourable situations and the same kind of peaty soil, yet can boast of few plants deserving even the title of bushes ; whilst in Tierra del Fuego it is impossible to find an acre of land not covered by the densest forest. In this case, both the direction of the heavy gales of wind and of the currents of the sea are favourable to the transport of seeds from Tierra del Fuego, as is shown by the canoes and trunks of trees drifted from that country, and frequently thrown on the shores of the Western Falkland. Hence perhaps it is, that there are many plants in common to the two countries: but with respect to the trees of Tierra del Fuego, even attempts made to transplant them have failed. _ During our stay at Maldonado I collected several quadru- peds, eighty kinds of birds, and many reptiles, including nine species of snakes. Of the indigenous mammalia, the only one now left of any size, which is common, is the Cervus campestris. This deer is exceedingly abundant, often in small herds, throughout the countries bordering the Plata and in Northern Patagonia. Ifa person crawling close along the ground, slowly advances towards a herd, the deer frequently, out of curiosity, approach to reconnoitre him. I have by this means killed, from one spot, three out of the same herd. Although so tame and inquisitive, yet when approached on horseback, they are exceedingly wary. In this country nobody goes on foot, and the deer knows man as its enemy only when he is mounted and armed with the bolas. At Bahia Blanca, a recent establish- ment in Northern Patagonia, I was surprised to find how little the deer cared tor the noise of a gun: one day I fired ten times from within eighty yards at one animal; and it was much more startled at the ball cutting up the ground than at the report of the rifle) My powder being exhausted, I was obliged to get up (to my shame as a sportsman be it spoken, though well able to kill birds on the wing) and halloo till the deer ran away. The most curious fact with respect to this animal, is the overpoweringly strong and offensive odour which proceeds from the buck. It is quite indescribable: several times whilst skin- ning the specimen which is now mounted at the Zoological Museum, I was almost overcome by nausea. . I tied up the WI THE CAPYBARA OR WATLR-HOG 51 skin in a silk pocket-handkerchief, and so carried it home: this handkerchief, after being well washed, I continually used, and it was of course as repeatedly washed ; yet every time, for a space of one year and seven months, when first unfolded, I distinctly perceived the odour. This appears an astonishing instance of the permanence of some matter, which nevertheless in its nature must be most subtile and volatile. Frequently, when passing at the distance of half a mile to leeward of a herd, I have perceived the whole air tainted with the effluvium. I believe the smell from the buck is most powerful at the period when its horns are perfect, or free from the hairy skin. When in this state the meat is, of course, quite uneatable ; but the Gauchos assert, that if buried for some time in fresh earth, the taint is removed. I have somewhere read that the islanders in the north of Scotland treat the rank carcasses of the fish- eating birds in the same manner. The order Rodentia is here very numerous in species: of mice alone I obtained no less than eight kinds? The largest gnawing animal in the world, the Hydrocherus capybara (the water-hog), is here also common. One which I shot at Monte Video weighed ninety-eight pounds: its length, from the end of the snout to the stump-like tail, was three feet two inches ; and its girth three feet eight. These great Rodents occasionally frequent the islands in the mouth of the Plata, where the water is quite salt, but are far more abundant on the borders of fresh-water lakes and rivers. Near Maldonado three or four generally live together. In the daytime they either lie among the aquatic plants, or openly feed on the turf plain? When viewed at a distance, from their manner of walk- ing and colour they resemble pigs: but when seated on their haunches, and attentively watching any object with one eye, 1 Jn South America I collected altogether twenty-seven species of mice, and thirteen more are known from the works of Azara and other authors. Those collected by myself have been named and described by Mr. Waterhouse at the meetings of the Zoological Society. I must be allowed to take this opportunity of returning my cordial thanks to Mr. Waterhouse, and to the other gentlemen attached to that Society, for their kind and most liberal assistance on all occasions. 2 Tn the stomach and duodenum of a capybara which I opened, I found a very large quantity of a thin yellowish fluid, in which scarcely a fibre could be distinguished. Mr. Owen informs me that a part of the cesophagus is so constructed that nothing much larger than a crow-quill can be passed down. Certainly the broad teeth and strong jaws of this animal are well fitted to grind into pulp the aquatic plants on which it feeds, 52 MALDONADO CHAP, they reassume the appearance of their congeners, cavies and rabbits. Both the front and side view of their head has quite a ludicrous aspect, from the great depth of their jaw. These animals, at Maldonado, were very tame; by cautiously walking, I approached within three yards of four old ones. This tame- ness may probably be accounted for, by the Jaguar having been banished for some years, and by the Gaucho not thinking it worth his while to hunt them. As I approached nearer and nearer they, frequently made their peculiar noise, which is a low abrupt grunt, not having much actual sound, but rather arising from the sudden expulsion of air: the only noise I know at all like it, is the first hoarse bark of a large dog. Having watched the four from almost within arm’s length (and they me) for several minutes, they rushed into the water at full gallop with the greatest impetuosity, and emitted at the same time their bark. After divinga short distance they came again to the surface, but only just showed the upper part of their heads. When the female is swimming in the water, and has young ones, they are said to sit on her back. These animals are easily killed in numbers ; but their skins are of trifling value, and the meat is very indifferent. On the islands in the Rio Parana they are exceedingly abundant, and afford the ordinary prey to the Jaguar. The Tucutuco (Ctenomys Brasiliensis) is a curious small animal, which may be briefly described as a Gnawer, with the habits of a mole. It is extremely numerous in some parts of the country, but is difficult to be procured, and never, I believe, comes out of the ground. It throws up at the mouth of its burrows hillocks of earth like those of the mole, but smaller. Considerable tracts of country are so completely undermined by these animals that horses, in passing over, sink above their fetlocks. The tucutucos appear, to a certain degree, to be gregarious: the man who procured the specimens for me had caught six together, and he said this was a common occurrence. They are nocturnal in their habits; and their principal food is the roots of plants, which are the object of their extensive and superficial burrows. This animal is universally known by a very peculiar noise which it makes when beneath the ground. A person, the first time he hears it, is much surprised ; for it is not easy to tell whence it comes, nor is it possible to guess what nr THE TUCUTUCO 53 kind of creature utters it. The noise consists in a short, but not rough, nasal grunt, which is monotonously repeated about four times in quick succession:! the name Tucutuco is given in imitation of the sound. Where this animal is abundant, it may be heard at all times of the day, and sometimes directly beneath one’s feet. When kept in a room, the tucutucos move both slowly and clumsily, which appears owing to the outward action of their hind legs ; and they are quite incapable, from the socket of the thigh-bone not having a certain ligament, of jumping even the smallest vertical height. They are very stupid in making any attempt to escape; when angry or frightened they uttered the tucu-tuco. Of those I kept alive, several, even the first day, became quite tame, not attempting to bite or to run away ; others were a little wilder. The man who caught them asserted that very many are invariably found blind. A specimen which I preserved in spirits was in this state; Mr. Reid considers it to be the effect of inflammation in the nictitating membrane. When the animal was alive I placed my finger within half an inch of its head, and not the slightest notice was taken: it made its way, how- ever, about the room nearly as well as the others. Considering the strictly subterranean habits of the tucutuco, the blindness, though so common, cannot be a very serious evil; yet it appears strange that any animal should possess an organ frequently subject to be injured. Lamarck would have been delighted with this fact, had he known it, when speculating? (probably with more truth than usual with him) on the gradually-acquired blindness of the Aspalax, a Gnawer living under ground, and of the Proteus, a reptile living in dark caverns filled with water; in both of which animals the eye is in an almost rudimentary state, and is covered by a tendinous membrane and skin. In the common mole the eye is extraordinarily small but perfect, though many anatomists doubt whether it is connected with the true optic nerve ; its vision must certainly be imperfect, though 1 At the R. Negro, in Northern Patagonia, there is an animal of the same habits, and probably a closely-allied species, but which I never saw. Its noise is different from that of the Maldonado kind; it is repeated only twice instead of three or four times, and is more distinct and sonorous: when heard from a distance it so closely resembles the sound made in cutting down a small tree with an axe, that I have sometimes remained in doubt concerning it. 2 Philosoph. Zoolog. tom. i. p. 242. 54 MALDONADO CHAP, probably useful to the animal when it leaves its burrow. In the tucutuco, which I believe never comes to the surface of the ground, the eye is rather larger, but often rendered blind and useless, though without apparently causing any inconvenience to the animal: no doubt Lamarck would have said that the tucutuco is now passing into the state of the Aspalax and Proteus. Birds of many kinds are extremely abundant on the un- dulating grassy plains around Maldonado. There are several species of a family allied in structure and manners to our Star- ling: one of these (Molothrus niger) is remarkable from its habits. Several may often be seen standing together on the back of a cow or horse; and while perched on a hedge, plum- ing themselves in the sun, they sometimes attempt to sing, or rather to hiss; the noise being very peculiar, resembling that of bubbles of air passing rapidly from a small orifice under water, so as to produce an acute sound. According to Azara, this bird, like the cuckoo, deposits its eggs in other birds’ nests. I was several times told by the country people that there cer- tainly is some bird having this habit; and my assistant in collecting, who is a very accurate person, found a nest of the sparrow of this country (Zonotrichia matutina), with one egg in it larger than the others, and of a different colour and shape. In North America there is another species of Molothrus (M. pecoris), which has a similar cuckoo-like habit, and which is most closely allied in every respect to the species from the Plata, even in such trifling peculiarities as standing on the backs of cattle; it differs only in being a little smaller, and in its plumage and eggs being of a slightly different shade of colour. This close agreement in structure and habits, in repre- sentative species coming from opposite quarters of a great continent, always strikes one as interesting, though of common occurrence. Mr. Swainson has well remarked,! that with the exception of the Molothrus pecoris, to which must be added the M. niger, the cuckoos are the only birds which can be called truly para- sitical; namely, such as “fasten themselves, as it were, on another living animal, whose animal heat brings their young into life, whose food they live upon, and whose death would 1 Magazine of Zoology and Botany, vol. i. p. 217. ut HABITS OF THE CUCKOO 55 cause theirs during the period of infancy.” It is remarkable that some of the species, but not all, both of the Cuckoo and Molothrus should agree in this one strange habit of their para- sitical propagation, whilst opposed to each other in almost every other habit: the molothrus, like our starling, is eminently sociable, and lives on the open plains without art or disguise : the cuckoo, as every one knows, is a singularly shy bird; it frequents the most retired thickets, and feeds on fruit and caterpillars. In structure also these two genera are widely removed from each other. Many theories, even phrenological theories, have been advanced to explain the origin of the cuckoo laying its eggs in other birds’ nests. M. Prévost alone, I think, has thrown light by his observations! on this puzzle: he finds that the female cuckoo, which, according to most observers, lays at least from four to six eggs, must pair with the male each time after laying only one or two eggs. Now, if the cuckoo was obliged to sit on her own eggs, she would either have to sit on all together, and therefore leave those first laid so long, that they probably would become addled; or she would have to hatch separately each egg or two eggs, as soon as laid: but as the cuckoo stays a shorter time in this country than any other migratory bird, she certainly would not have time enough for the successive hatchings. Hence we can perceive in the fact of the cuckoo pairing several times, and laying her eggs at intervals, the cause of her depositing her eggs in other birds’ nests, and leaving them to the care of foster-parents. I am strongly inclined to believe that this view is correct, from having been independently led (as we shall hereafter see) to an analogous conclusion with regard to the South American ostrich, the females of which are parasitical, if I may so express it, on each other ; each female laying several eggs in the nests of several other females, and the male ostrich undertaking all the cares of incubation, like the strange foster-parents with the cuckoo. I will mention only two other birds, which are very common, and render themselves prominent from their habits. The Saurophagus sulphuratus is typical of the great American tribe of tyrant-flycatchers. In its structure it closely approaches the true shrikes, but in its habits may be compared to many birds. I have frequently observed it, hunting a field, hovering over 1 Read before the Academy of Sciences in Paris. L’Institut, 1834, p. 418. 56 ALALDONADO CHAP, one spot like a hawk, and then proceeding on to another. When seen thus suspended in the air, it might very readily at a short distance be mistaken for one of the Rapacious order ; its stoop, however, is very inferior in force and rapidity to that of a hawk. At other times the Saurophagus haunts the neigh- bourhood of water, and there, like a kingfisher, remaining stationary, it catches any small fish which may come near the margin. These birds are not unfrequently kept either in cages or in courtyards, with their wings cut. They soon become tame, and are very amusing from their cunning odd manners, which were described to me as being similar to those of the common magpie. Their flight is undulatory, for the weight of the head and bill appears too great for the body. In the even- ing the Saurophagus takes its stand on a bush, often by the roadside, and continually repeats without change a shrill and rather agreeable cry, which somewhat resembles articulate words: the Spaniards say it is like the words “Bien te veo” (I see you well), and accordingly have given it this name. A mocking-bird (Mimus orpheus), called by the inhabitants Calandria, is remarkable, from possessing a song far superior to that of any other bird in the country: indeed, it is nearly the only bird in South America which I have observed to take its stand for the purpose of singing. The song may be com- pared to that of the Sedge warbler, but is more powerful ; some harsh notes and some very high ones being mingled with a pleasant warbling. It is heard only during the spring. At other times its cry is harsh and far from harmonious. Near Maldonado these birds were tame and bold; they constantly attended the country houses in numbers, to pick the meat which was hung up on the posts or walls: if any other small bird joined the feast, the Calandria soon chased it away. On the wide uninhabited plains of Patagonia another closely allied species, O. Patagonica of d’Orbigny, which frequents the valleys clothed with spiny bushes, is a wilder bird, and has a slightly different tone of voice. It appears to me a curious circum- stance, as showing the fine shades of difference in habits, that judging from this latter respect alone, when I first saw this second species, I thought it was different from the Maldonado kind. Having afterwards procured a specimen, and comparing the two without particular care, they appeared so very similar, nt CARRION HAWKS 57 that I changed my opinion; but now Mr. Gould says that they are certainly distinct; a conclusion in conformity with the trifling difference of habit, of which, however, he was not aware. The number, tameness, and disgusting habits of the carrion- feeding hawks of South America make them pre-eminently striking to any one accustomed only to the birds of Northern Europe. In this list may be included four species of the Caracara or Polyborus, the Turkey buzzard, the Gallinazo, and the Condor. The Caracaras are, from their structure, placed among the eagles: we shall soon see how ill they become so high a rank. In their habits they well supply the place of our carrion-crows, magpies, and ravens ; a tribe of birds widely dis- tributed over the rest of the world, but entirely absent in South America. To begin with the Polyborus Brasiliensis: this is a common bird, and has a wide geographical range; it is most numerous on the grassy savannahs of La Plata (where it goes by the name of Carrancha), and is far from unfrequent through- out the sterile plains of Patagonia. In the desert between the rivers Negro and Colorado, numbers constantly attend the line of road to devour the carcasses of the exhausted animals which chance to perish from fatigue and thirst. Although thus common in these dry and open countries, and likewise on the arid shores of the Pacific, it is nevertheless found inhabiting the damp impervious forests of West Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. The Carranchas, together with the Chimango, con- stantly attend in numbers the estancias and slaughtering-houses. If an animal dies on the plain the Gallinazo commences the feast, and then the two species of Polyborus pick the bones clean. These birds, although thus commonly feeding together, are far from being friends. When the Carrancha is quietly seated on the branch of a tree or on the ground, the Chimango often continues for a long time flying backwards and forwards, up and down, in a semicircle, trying each time at the bottom of the curve to strike its larger relative. The Carrancha takes little notice, except by bobbing its head. Although the Carranchas frequently assemble in numbers, they are not gregarious ; for in desert places they may be seen solitary, or more commonly by pairs. The Carranchas are said to be very crafty, and to steal great 58 MALDONADO CHAP, numbers of eggs. They attempt, also, together with the Chi- mango, to pick off the scabs from the sore backs of horses and mules. The poor animal, on the one hand, with its ears down and its back arched; and, on the other, the hovering bird, eyeing at the distance of a yard the disgusting morsel, form a picture, which has been described by Captain Head with his own peculiar spirit and accuracy. These false eagles most rarely kill any living bird or animal; and their vulture-like, necrophagous habits are very evident to any one who has fallen asleep on the desolate plains of Patagonia, for when he wakes, he will see, on each surrounding hillock, one of these birds patiently watching him with an evil eye: it is a feature in the landscape of these countries, which will be recognised by every one who has wandered over them. Ifa party of men go out hunting with dogs and horses, they will be accompanied, during the day, by several of these attendants. After feeding, the uncovered craw protrudes; at such times, and indeed generally, the Carrancha is an inactive, tame, and cowardly bird. Its flight is heavy and slow, like that of an English rook. It seldom soars; but I have twice seen one at a great height gliding through the air with much ease. It runs (in contradis- tinction to hopping), but not quite so quickly as some of its congeners. At times the Carrancha is noisy, but is not generally so: its cry is loud, very harsh and peculiar, and may be likened to the sound of the Spanish guttural g, followed by a rough double yr; when uttering this cry it elevates its head higher and higher, till at last, with its beak wide open, the crown almost touches the lower part of the back. This fact, which has been doubted, is quite true; I have seen them several times with their heads backwards in a completely inverted position. To these observations I may add, on the high authority of Azara, that the Carrancha feeds on worms, shells, slugs, grasshoppers, and frogs; that it destroys young lambs by tearing the umbilical cord; and that it pursues the Gallinazo, till that bird is compelled to vomit up the carrion it may have recently gorged. Lastly, Azara states that several Carranchas, five or six together, will unite in chase of large birds, even such as herons. All these facts show that it is a bird of very versatile habits and considerable ingenuity. The Polyborus Chimango is considerably smaller than the qt CARRION HARKS 59 last specics. It is truly omnivorous, and will cat even bread ; and I was assured that it materially injures the potato-crops in Chiloe, by stocking up the roots when first planted. Of all the carrion-feeders it is generally the last which leaves the skeleton of a dead animal; and may often be seen within the ribs of a cow or horse, like a bird in a cage. Another species is the Polyborus Nove Zelandiz, which is exceedingly common in the Falkland Islands. These birds in many respects resemble in their habits the Carranchas. They live on the flesh of dead animals and on marine productions ; and on the Ramirez rocks their whole sustenance must depend on the sea. They are ex- traordinarily tame and fearless, and haunt the neighbourhood of houses for offal. If a hunting party kills an animal, a number soon collect and patiently await, standing on the ground on all sides. After eating, their uncovered craws are largely pro- truded, giving them a disgusting appearance. They readily attack wounded birds: a cormorant in this state having taken to the shore, was immediately seized on by several, and its death hastened by their blows. The Beagle was at the Falk- lands only during the summer, but the officers of the Adventure, who were there in the winter, mention many extraordinary instances of the boldness and rapacity of these birds. They actually pounced on a dog that was lying fast asleep close by one of the party ; and the sportsmen had difficulty in preventing the wounded geese from being seized before their eyes. It is said that several together (in this respect resembling the Carranchas) wait at the mouth of a rabbit-hole, and together seize on the animal when it comes out. They were constantly flying on board the vessel when in the harbour; and it was necessary to keep a good look-out to prevent the leather being torn from the rigging, and the meat or game from the stern. These birds are very mischievous and inquisitive; they will pick up almost anything from the ground; a large black glazed hat was carried nearly a mile, as was a pair of the heavy balls used in catching cattle. Mr. Usborne experienced during the survey a more severe loss, in their stealing a small Kater’s compass in a red morocco leather case, which was never recovered. These birds arc, moreover, quarrelsome and very passionate; tearing up the grass with their bills from rage. They are not truly gregarious; they do not soar, and their 60 MALDONADO CHAP. flight is heavy and clumsy ; on the ground they run extremely fast, very much like pheasants. They are noisy, uttering several harsh cries; one of which is like that of the English rook ; hence the sealers always call them rooks. It is a curious circumstance that, when crying out, they throw their heads upwards and backwards, after the same manner as the Car- rancha, They build in the rocky cliffs of the sea-coast, but only on the small adjoining islets, and not on the two main islands: this is a singular precaution in so tame and fearless a bird. The sealers say that the flesh of these birds, when cooked, is quite white, and very good eating; but bold must the man be who attempts such a meal. We have now only to mention the turkey-buzzard (Vultur aura) and the Gallinazo. The former is found wherever the country is moderately damp, from Cape Horn to North America. Differently from the Polyborus Brasiliensis and Chimango, it has found its way to the Falkland Islands. The turkey-buzzard is a solitary bird, or at most goes in pairs. It may at once be recognised from a long distance, by its lofty, soaring, and most elegant flight. It is well known to be a true carrion-feeder. On the west coast of Patagonia, among the thickly-wooded islets and broken land, it lives exclusively on what the sea throws up, and on the carcasses of dead seals. Wherever these animals are congregated on the rocks, there the vultures may be seen. The Gallinazo (Cathartes atratus) has a different range from the last species, as it never occurs southward of lat. 41°. Azara states that there exists a tradition that these birds, at the time of the conquest, were not found near Monte Video, but that they subsequently followed the inhabitants from more northern districts. At the present day they are numerous in the valley of the Colorado, which is three hundred miles due south of Monte Video. It seems probable that this additional migration has happened since the time of Azara. The Gallinazo generally prefers a humid climate, or rather the neighbourhood of fresh water ; hence it is extremely abundant in Brazil and La Plata, while it is never found on the desert and arid plains of Northern Patagonia, excepting near some stream. These birds frequent the whole Pampas to the foot of the Cordillera, but I never saw or heard of one in Chile: in Peru they are preserved as scaven- gers. These vultures certainly may be called gregarious, for I TUBES FORMED BY LIGHTNING 61 they seem to have pleasure in society, and are not solely brought together by the attraction of a common prey. On a fine day a flock may often be observed at a great height, each bird wheel- ing round and round without closing its wings, in the most graceful evolutions. This is clearly performed for the mere pleasure of the exercise, or perhaps is connected with their matrimonial alliances. I have now mentioned all the carrion-feeders, excepting the condor, an account of which will be more appropriately intro- duced when we visit a country more congenial to its habits than the plains of La Plata. In a broad band of sand-hillocks which separate the Laguna del Potrero from the shores of the Plata, at the distance of a few miles from Maldonado, I found a group of those vitrified, sili- ceous tubes, which are formed by lightning entering loose sand. These tubes resemble in every particular those from Drigg in Cumberland, described in the Geological Transactions! The sand-hillocks of Maldonado, not being protected by vegetation, are constantly changing their position. From this cause the tubes projected above the surface; and numerous fragments lying near, showed that they had formerly been buried to a greater depth. Four sets entered the sand perpendicularly: by working with my hands I traced one of them two feet deep ; and some fragments which evidently had belonged to the same tube, when added to the other part, measured five feet three inches. The diameter of the whole tube was nearly equal, and therefore we must suppose that originally it extended to a much greater depth. These dimensions are however small, compared to those of the tubes from Drigg, one of which was traced to a depth of not less than thirty feet. The internal surface is completely vitrified, glossy, and smooth. A small fragment examined under the microscope appeared, from the number of minute entangled air or perhaps steam bubbles, like an assay fused before the blowpipe. The sand is entirely, or in greater part, siliceous; but some points 1 Geolog. Transact. vol. ii. p. 528. In the Phzlosoph. Transact. (1790, p. 294) Dr. Priestley has described some imperfect siliceous tubes and a melted pebble of quartz, found in digging into the ground, under a tree, where a man had been killed by lightning. 62 MALDONADO CHAP. are of a black colour, and from their glossy surface possess a metallic lustre. The thickness of the wall of the tube varies from a thirtieth to a twentieth of an inch, and occasionally even equals a tenth. On the outside the grains of sand are rounded, and have a slightly glazed appearance: I could not distinguish any signs of crystallisation. In a similar manner to that described in the Geological Transactions, the tubes are generally compressed, and have deep longitudinal furrows, so as closely to resemble a shrivelled vegetable stalk, or the bark of the elm or cork tree. Their circumference is about two inches, but in some fragments, which are cylindrical and without any furrows, it is as much as four inches. The compression from the sur- rounding loose sand, acting while the tube was still softened from the effects of the intense heat, has evidently caused the creases or furrows. Judging from the uncompressed fragments, the measure or bore of the lightning (if such a term may be used) must have been about one inch anda quarter. At Paris M. Hachette and M. Beudant1 succeeded in making tubes, in most respects similar to these fulgurites, by passing very strong shocks of galvanism through finely-powdered glass: when salt was added, so as to increase its fusibility, the tubes were larger in every dimension. They failed both with powdered felspar and quartz. One tube, formed with pounded glass, was very nearly an inch long, namely .982, and had an internal diameter of .019 of an inch, When we hear that the strongest battery in Paris was used, and that its power on a substance of such easy fusibility as glass was to form tubes so diminutive, we must feel greatly astonished at the force of a shock of light- ning, which, striking the sand in several places, has formed cylinders, in one instance of at least thirty feet long, and having an internal bore, where not compressed, of full an inch anda half; and this in a material so extraordinarily refractory as quartz ! The tubes, as I have already remarked, enter the sand nearly in a vertical direction. One, however, which was less regular than the others, deviated from a right line, at the most consi- derable bend, to the amount of thirty-three degrees. From this same tube, two small branches, about a foot apart, were sent off; one pointed downwards, and the other upwards. This 1 Annales de Chimte et de Physique, tom. xxxvii. p. 319. WI ELECTRIC PHENOMENA 63 latter case is remarkable, as the electric fluid must have turned back at the acute angle of 26°, to the line of its main course. Besides the four tubes which I found vertical, and traced be- neath the surface, there were several other groups of fragments, the original sites of which without doubt were near. All occurred in a level area of shifting sand, sixty yards by twenty, situated among some high sand-hillocks, and at the distance of about half a mile from a chain of hills four or five hundred fect in height. The most remarkable circumstance, as it appears to me, in this case as well as in that of Drigg, and in one described by M. Ribbentrop in Germany, is the number of tubes found within such limited spaces. At Drigg, within an area of fifteen yards, three were observed, and the same number occurred in Germany. In the case which I have described, certainly more than four existed within the space of the sixty by twenty yards. As it does not appear probable that the tubes are produced by successive distinct shocks, we must believe that the lightning, shortly before entering the ground, divides itself into separate branches. The neighbourhood of the Rio Plata seems peculiarly sub- ject to electric phenomena. In the year 1793,) one of the most destructive thunderstorms perhaps on record happened at Buenos Ayres: thirty-seven places within the city were struck by lightning, and nineteen people killed. From facts stated in several books of travels, I am inclined to suspect that thunder- storms are very common near the mouths of great rivers. Is it not possible that the mixture of large bodies of fresh and salt water may disturb the electrical equilibrium? Even during our occasional visits to this part of South America, we heard of a ship, two churches, and a house having been struck. Both the church and the house I saw shortly afterwards: the house belonged to Mr. Hood, the consul-general at Monte Video. Some of the effects were curious: the paper, for nearly a foot on each side of the line where the bell-wires had run, was blackened. The metal had been fused, and although the room was about fifteen feet high, the globules, dropping on the chairs and furni- ture, had drilled in them a chain of minute holes. reef would not produce one great atoll 400 miles in length, but a chain or archipelago of atolls, of very nearly the same dimensions with those in the Maldiva Archipelago. Moreover, in an atoll once breached on opposite sides, from the likeli- hood of the oceanic and tidal currents passing straight through the breaches, it is extremely improbable that the corals, especially during continued subsidence, would ever be able again to unite the rim ; if they did not, as the whole sank down- wards, one atoll would be divided into two or more. Inthe Maldiva Archipelago there are distinct atolls so related to each other in position, and separated by channels either unfathomable or very deep (the channel between Ross and Ari atolls is 150 fathoms, and that between the north and south Nillandoo atolls is 200 fathoms in depth), that it is impossible to look at a map of them without believing that they were once more intimately related. And in this same archipelago, Mahlos-Mahdoo atoll is divided by a bifurcating channel from 100 to 132 fathoms in depth, in such a manner, that it is scarcely possible to say whether it ought strictly to be 508 DEAD AND SUNKEN REEFS CHAP. called three separate atolls, or one great atoll not yet finally divided. I will not enter on many more details; but I must remark that the curious structure of the northern Maldiva atolls receives (taking into consideration the free entrance of the sea through their broken margins) a simple explanation in the upward and outward growth of the corals, originally based both on small detached reefs in their lagoons, such as occur in common atolls, and on broken portions of the linear marginal reef, such as bounds every atoll of the ordinary form. I cannot refrain from once again remarking on the singularity of these complex structures—a great sandy and generally concave disk rises abruptly from the unfathomable ocean, with its central expanse studded and its edge symmetrically bordered with oval basins of coral-rock just lipping the surface of the sea, sometimes clothed with vegetation, and each containing a lake of clear water | One more point in detail: as in two neighbouring archi- pelagoes corals flourish in one and not in the other, and as so many conditions before enumerated must affect their existence, it would be an inexplicable fact if, during the changes to which earth, air, and water are subjected, the reef-building corals were to keep alive for perpetuity on any one spot or area. And as by our theory the areas including atolls and barrier-reefs are subsiding, we ought occasionally to find reefs both dead and submerged. In all reefs, owing to the sediment being washed out of the lagoon or lagoon-channel to leeward, that side is least favourable to the long-continued vigorous growth of the corals; hence dead portions of reef not unfrequently occur on the leeward side; and these, though still retaining their proper wall-like form, are now in several instances sunk several fathoms beneath the surface. The Chagos group appears from some cause, possibly from the subsidence having been too rapid, at present to be much less favourably circumstanced for the growth of reefs than formerly ; one atoll has a portion of its marginal reef, nine miles in length, dead and submerged; a second has only a few quite small living points which rise to the surface; a third and fourth are entirely dead and submerged ; a fifth isa mere wreck, with its structure almost obliterated. It is remark- able that in all these cases the dead reefs and portions of reef XX DISTRIBUTION OF CORAL-REEFS 509 lie at nearly the same depth, namely, from six to eight fathoms beneath the surface, as if they had been carried down by one uniform movement. One of these “half-drowned atolls,” so called by Capt. Moresby (to whom I am indebted for much invaluable information), is of vast size, namely, ninety nautical miles across in one direction, and seventy miles in another line ; and is in many respects eminently curious. As by our theory it follows that new atolls will generally be formed in each new area of subsidence, two weighty objections might have been raised, namely, that atolls must be increasing indefinitely in number ; and secondly, that in old areas of subsidence each separate atoll must be increasing indefinitely in thickness, if proofs of their occasional destruction could not have been adduced. Thus have we traced the history of these great rings of coral-rock, from their first origin through their normal changes, and through the occasional accidents of their existence, to their death and final obliteration. In my volume on Coral Formations I have published a map, in which I have coloured all the atolls dark blue, the barrier-reefs pale blue, and the fringing-reefs red. These latter reefs have been formed whilst the land has been stationary, or, as appears from the frequent presence of upraised organic remains, whilst it has been slowly rising: atolls and barrier-reefs, on the other hand, have grown up during the directly opposite movement of subsidence, which movement must have been very gradual, and in the case of atolls so vast in amount as to have buried every mountain- summit over wide ocean-spaces. Now in this map we see that the reefs tinted pale and dark blue, which have been produced by the same order of movement, as a general rule manifestly stand near each other. Again we see that the areas with the two blue tints are of wide extent; and that they lie separate from extensive lines of coast coloured red, both of which circumstances might naturally have been inferred, on the theory of the nature of the reefs having been governed by the nature of the earth’s movement. It deserves notice, that in more than one instance where single red and blue circles approach near each other, I can show that there have been oscillations of level; for in such cases the red or fringed 510 DISTRIBUTION OF CORAL-REEFS CHAP. circles consist of atolls, originally by our theory formed during subsidence, but subsequently upheaved; and on the other hand, some of the pale blue or encircled islands are composed of coral-rock, which must have been uplifted to its present height before that subsidence took place, during which the existing barrier-reefs grew upwards. Authors have noticed with surprise, that although atolls are the commonest coral-structures throughout some enormous oceanic tracts, they are entirely absent in other seas, as in the West Indies: we can now at once perceive the cause, for where there has not been subsidence, atolls cannot have been formed ; and in the case of the West Indies and parts of the East Indies, these tracts are known to have been rising within the recent period. The larger areas, coloured red and blue, are all elongated ; and between the two colours there is a degree of rude alternation, as if the rising of one had balanced the sinking of the other. Taking into consideration the proofs of recent elevation both on the fringed coasts and on some others (for instance, in South America) where there are no reefs, we are led to conclude that the great continents are for the most part rising areas; and from the nature of the coral-reefs, that the central parts of the great oceans are sinking areas. The East Indian Archipelago, the most broken land in the world, is in most parts an area of elevation, but surrounded and penetrated, probably in more lines than one, by narrow areas of subsidence. I have marked with vermilion spots all the many known active volcanoes within the limits of this same map. Their entire absence from every one of the great subsiding areas, coloured either pale or dark blue, is most striking ; and not less so is the coincidence of the chief volcanic chains with the parts coloured red, which we are led to conclude have either long remained stationary, or more generally have been recently upraised. Although a few of the vermilion spots occur within no great distance of single circles tinted blue, yet not one single active volcano is situated within several hundred miles of an archipelago, or even small group of atolls. It is, therefore, a striking fact that in the Friendly Archipelago, which consists of a group of atolls upheaved and since partially worn down, two volcanoes, and perhaps more, are historically XX THEIR RELATION TO VOLCANOES 511 known to have been in action. On the other hand, although most of the islands in the Pacific which are encircled by barrier-reefs are of volcanic origin, often with the remnants of craters still distinguishable, not one of them is known to have ever been in eruption. Hence in these cases it would appear that volcanoes burst forth into action and become extinguished on the same spots, accordingly as elevatory or subsiding movements prevail there. Numberless facts could be adduced to prove that upraised organic remains are common wherever there are active volcanoes; but until it could be shown that in areas of subsidence volcanoes were either absent or inactive, the inference, however probable in itself, that their distribution depended on the rising or falling of the earth’s surface, would have been hazardous. But now, I think, we may freely admit this important deduction. Taking a final view of the map, and bearing in mind the statements made with respect to the upraised organic remains, we must feel astonished at the vastness of the areas which have suffered changes in level either downwards or upwards, within a period not geologically remote. It would appear, also, that the elevatory and subsiding movements follow nearly the same laws. Throughout the spaces interspersed with atolls, where not a single peak of high land has been left above the level of the sea, the sinking must have been immense in amount. The sinking, moreover, whether con- tinuous, or recurrent with intervals sufficiently long for the corals again to bring up their living edifices to the surface, must necessarily have been extremely slow. This conclusion is probably the most important one which can be deduced from the study of coral formations ;—and it is one which it is difficult to imagine how otherwise could ever have been arrived at. Nor can I quite pass over the probability of the former existence of large archipelagoes of lofty islands, where now only rings of coral-rock scarcely break the open expanse of the sea, throwing some light on the distribution of the inhabitants of the other high islands, now left standing so immensely remote from each other in the midst of the great oceans. The reef-constructing corals have indeed reared and preserved wonderful memorials of the subterranean oscillations of level; we see in cach barrier-recf a proof that the land has 512 VAST AMOUNT OF SUBSIDENCE CHAP. XX there subsided, and in each atoll a monument over an island now lost. We may thus, like unto a geologist who had lived his ten thousand years and kept a record of the passing changes, gain some insight into the great system by which the surface of this globe has been broken up, and land and water interchanged. y tg > s ‘ . s Ny BIRGOS LATRKO, KEELING ISLAND. ST. LOUIS, MAURITIUS Glave MBAR OO.) MAURITIUS TO ENGLAND Mauritius, beautiful appearance of—Great crateriform ring of mountains—Iindoos— St. Helena—History of the changes in the vegetation—Cause of the extinction of Jand-shells—Ascension— Variation in the imported rats—Volcanic bombs—Beds of infusoria—Bahia, Brazil—Splendour of tropical scenery— Pernambuco — Singular reef—Slavery—Return to England—Retrospect on our voyage. April 29th.—In the morning we passed round the northern end of Mauritius, or the Isle of France. From this point of view the aspect of the island equalled the expectations raised by the many well-known descriptions of its beautiful scenery. The sloping plain of the Pamplemousses, interspersed with houses, and coloured by the large fields of sugar-cane of a bright green, composed the foreground. The brilliancy of the green was the more remarkable, because it is a colour which generally is conspicuous only from a very short distance. Towards the centre of the island groups of wooded mountains rose out of this highly-cultivated plain ; their summits, as so commonly happens with ancient volcanic rocks, being jagged 21L 514 MAURITIUS CHAP. into the sharpest points. Masses of white clouds were collected around these pinnacles, as if for the sake of pleasing the stranger’s eye. The whole island, with its sloping border and central mountains, was adorned with an air of perfect elegance: the scenery, if I may use such an expression, appeared to the sight harmonious. I spent the greater part of the next day in walking about the town and visiting different people. The town is of con- siderable size, and is said to contain 20,000 inhabitants ; the streets are very clean and regular. Although the island has been so many years under the English government, the general character of the place is quite French: Englishmen speak to their servants in French, and the shops are all French ; indeed I should think that Calais or Boulogne was much more Anglified. There is a very pretty little theatre, in which operas are excellently performed. We were also surprised at seeing large booksellers’ shops, with well-stored shelves ;—music and read- ing bespeak our approach to the old world of civilisation ; for in truth both Australia and America are new worlds. The various races of men walking in the streets afford the most interesting spectacle in Port Louis. Convicts from India are banished here for life ; at present there are about 800, and they are employed in various public works. Before seeing these people, I had no idea that the inhabitants of India were such noble-looking figures. Their skin is extremely dark, and many of the older men had large mustaches and beards of a snow-white colour; this, together with the fire of their ex- pression, gave them quite an imposing aspect. The greater number had been banished for murder and the worst crimes ; others for causes which can scarcely be considered as moral faults, such as for not obeying, from superstitious motives, the English laws. These men are generally quiet and well con- ducted ; from their outward conduct, their cleanliness, and faithful observance of their strange religious rites, it was impossible to look at them with the same eyes as on our wretched convicts in New South Wales. May ist—Sunday. I took a quiet walk along the sea- coast to the north of the town. The plain in this part is quite uncultivated ; it consists of a field of black lava, smoothed over with coarse grass and bushes, the latter being chiefly Mimosas. XXI MAURITIUS 515 The scenery may be described as intermediate in character between that of the Galapagos and of Tahiti; but this wil! convey a definite idea to very few persons. It is a very pleasant country, but it has not the charms of Tahiti, or the grandeur of Brazil. The next day I ascended La Pouce, a mountain so called from a thumb-like projection, which rises close behind the town to a hcight of 2600 feet. The centre of the island consists of a great platform, surrounded by old broken basaltic mountains, with their strata dipping seawards. The central platform, formed of comparatively recent streams of lava, is of an oval shape, thirteen geographical miles across in the line of its shorter axis. The exterior bounding mountains come into that class of structures called Craters of Elevation, which are supposed to have been formed not like ordinary craters, but by a great and sudden upheaval. There appear to me to be insuperable objections to this view: on the other hand, I can hardly believe, in this and in some other cases, that these marginal crateriform mountains are merely the basal remnants of immense volcanoes, of which the summits cither have been blown off or swallowed up in subterranean abysses. From our elevated position we enjoyed an excellent view over the island. The country on this side appears pretty well cultivated, being divided into fields and studded with farm- houses. I was however assured that of the whole land not more than half is yet in a productive state; if such be the case, considering the present large export of sugar, this island, at some future period when thickly peopled, will be of great value. Since England has taken possession of it, a period of only twenty-five years, the export of sugar is said to have increased seventy-five fold. One great cause of its prosperity is the excellent state of the roads. In the neighbouring Isle of Bourbon, which remains under the French government, the roads are still in the same miserable state as they were here only a few years ago. Although the French residents must have largely profited by the increased prosperity of their island, yet the English government is far from popular. 3vrd.—lIn the evening Captain Lloyd, the Surveyor-general, so well known from his examination of the Isthmus of Panama, invited Mr. Stokes and myself to his country-house, which is situated on the edge of Wilheim Plains, and about six miles 516 ST. HELENA CHAP. from the Port. We stayed at this delightful place two days ; standing nearly 800 feet above the sea, the air was cool and fresh, and on every side there were delightful walks. Close by, a grand ravine has been worn to a depth of about 500 feet through the slightly inclined streams of lava which have flowed from the central platform. 5¢#,—Captain Lloyd took us to the Riviere Noire, which is several miles to the southward, that I might examine some rocks of elevated coral. We passed through pleasant gardens, and fine fields of sugar-cane growing amidst huge blocks of lava. The roads were bordered by hedges of Mimosa, and near many of the houses there were avenues of the mango. Some of the views, where the peaked hills and the cultivated farms were seen together, were exceedingly picturesque ; and we were constantly tempted to exclaim, “ How pleasant it would be to pass one’s life in such quiet abodes!” Captain Lloyd possessed an elephant, and he sent it half-way with us, that we might enjoy a ride in true Indian fashion. The circumstance which surprised me most was its quite noiseless step. This elephant is the only one at present on the island ; but it is said others will be sent for. May 9th.—We sailed from Port Louis, and, calling at the Cape of Good Hope, on the 8th of July we arrived off St. Helena. This island, the forbidding aspect of which has been so often described, rises abruptly like a huge black castle from the ocean. Near the town, as if to complete nature’s defence, small forts and guns fill up every gap in the rugged rocks. The town runs up a flat and narrow valley ; the houses look respectable, and are interspersed with a very few green trees. When approaching the anchorage there was one striking view: an irregular castle perched on the summit of a lofty hill, and surrounded by a few scattered fir-trees, boldly projected against the sky. The next day I obtained lodgings within a stone’s throw of Napoleon’s tomb :' it was a capital central situation, whence I 1 After the volumes of eloquence which have poured forth on this subject it is dangerous even to mention the tomb. A modern traveller, in twelve lines, burdens the poor little island with the following titles, —it is a grave, tomb, pyramid, cemetery, sepulchre, catacomb, sarcophagus, minaret, and mausoleum ! XXI ITS APPEARANCE 517 could make exeursions in every direction. During the four days I stayed here, I wandered over the island from morning to night, and examined its geological history. My lodgings were situated at a height of about 2000 feet ; here the weather was cold and boisterous, with constant showers of rain; and every now and then the whole scene was veiled in thick clouds. Near the coast the rough lava is quite bare ; in the central and higher parts feldspathic rocks by their decomposition have produced a clayey soil, which, where not covered by vegetation, is stained in broad bands of many bright colours. At this ST. HELENA. season the land, moistened by constant showers, produces a singularly bright green pasture, which lower and lower down gradually fades away and at last disappears. In latitude 16’, and at the trifling clevation of 1500 feet, it is surprising to behold a vegetation possessing a character decidedly British. The hills are crowned with irregular plantations of Scotch firs ; and the sloping banks are thickly scattered over with thickets of gorse, covered with its bright yellow flowers. | Weeping- willows are common on the banks of the rivulets, and the hedges are made of the blackberry, producing its well-known fruit. When we consider that the number of plants now found on the island is 746, and that out of these fifty-two alone are 518 ST. HELENA CHAP. indigenous species, the rest having been imported, and most of them from England, we see the reason of the British character of the vegetation. Many of these English plants appear to flourish better than in their native country ; some also from the opposite quarter of Australia succeed remarkably well. The many imported species must have destroyed some of the native kinds ; and it is only on the highest and steepest ridges that the indigenous Flora is now predominant. The English, or rather Welsh character of the scenery, is kept up by the numerous cottages and small white houses ; some buried at the bottom of the deepest valleys, and others mounted on the crests of the lofty hills. Some of the views are striking, for instance that from near Sir W. Doveton’s house, where the bold peak called Lot is seen over a dark wood of firs, the whole being backed by the red water-worn mountains of the southern coast. On viewing the island from an eminence, the first circumstance which strikes one is the number of the roads and forts; the labour bestowed on the public works, if one forgets its character as a prison, seems out of all proportion to its extent or value. There is so little level or useful land that it seems surprising how so many people, about 5000, can subsist here. The lower orders, or the emancipated slaves, are, I believe, extremely poor; they complain of the want of work. From the reduction in the number of public servants, owing to the island having been given up by the East India Company, and the consequent emigration of many of the richer people, the poverty probably will increase. The chief food of the working class is rice with a little salt meat ; as neither of these articles are the products of the island, but must be purchased with money, the low wages tell heavily on the poor people. Now that the people are blessed with freedom, a right which I believe they value fully, it seems probable that their numbers will quickly increase ; if so, what is to become of the little state of St. Helena ? My guide was an elderly man, who had been a goatherd when a boy, and knew every step amongst the rocks. He was of a race many times crossed, and although with a dusky skin he had not the disagreeable expression of a mulatto. He was a very civil, quiet old man, and such appears the character of the greater number of the lower classes. It was strange to XXI CHANGES IN THE VEGETATION 519 my ears to hear a man, nearly white and respectably dressed, talking with indifference of the times when he was a slave. With my companion, who carried our dinners and a horn of water, which is quite necessary, as all the water in the lower valleys is saline, I every day took long walks. Beneath the upper and central green circle, the wild valleys are quite desolate and untenanted. Here, to the geologist, there were scenes of high interest, showing successive changes and complicated disturbances. According to my views, St. Helena has existed as an island from a very remote epoch: some obscure proofs, however, of the elevation of the land are still extant. I believe that the central and highest peaks form parts of the rim of a great crater, the southern half of which has been entirely removed by the waves of the sea: there is, moreover, an external wall of black basaltic rocks, like the coast-mountains of Mauritius, which are older than the central volcanic streams. On the higher parts of the island con- siderable numbers of a shell, long thought a marine species, occur embedded in the soil. It proves to be a Cochlogena, or land-shell of a very peculiar form ;! with it I found six other kinds ; and in another spot an eighth species. It is remarkable that none of them are now found living. Their extinction has probably been caused by the entire destruction of the woods, and the consequent loss of food and shelter which occurred during the early part of the last century. The history of the changes, which the elevated plains of Longwood and Deadwood have undergone, as given in General Beatson’s account of the island, is extremely curious. Both plains, it is said, in former times were covered with wood, and were therefore called the Great Wood. So late as the year 1716 there were many trees, but in 1724 the old trees had mostly fallen; and as goats and hogs had been suffered to range about, all the young trees had been killed. It appears also from the official records that the trees were unexpectedly, some years afterwards, succeeded by a wire grass, which spread over the whole surface.2 General Beatson adds that now this 1 It deserves notice, that all the many specimens of this shell found by me in one spot differ, as a marked variety, from another set of specimens procured from a different spot. 2 Beatson’s St. Helena, Introductory chapter, p. 4. 520 ST. HELENA CHAP. plain “is covered with fine sward, and is become the finest piece of pasture on the island.” The extent of surface, prob- ably covered by wood at a former period, is estimated at no less than two thousand acres; at the present day scarcely a single tree can be found there. It is also said that in 1709 there were quantities of dead trees in Sandy Bay ; this place is now so utterly desert that nothing but so well-attested an account could have made me believe that they could ever have grown there. The fact that the goats and hogs destroyed all the young trees as they sprang up, and that in the course of time the old ones, which were safe from their attacks, perished from age, seems clearly made out. Goats were introduced in the year 1502; eighty-six years afterwards, in the time of Cavendish, it is known that they were exceedingly numerous. More than a century afterwards, in 1731, when the evil was complete and irretrievable, an order was issued that all stray animals should be destroyed. It is very interesting thus to find that the arrival of animals at St. Helena in 1501 did not change the whole aspect of the island, until a period of two hundred and twenty years had elapsed: for the goats were introduced in 1502, and in 1724 it is said “the old trees had mostly fallen.” There can be little doubt that this great change in the vegetation affected not only the land-shells, causing eight species to become extinct, but likewise a multitude of insects. St. Helena, situated so remote from any continent, in the midst of a great ocean, and possessing a unique Flora, excites our curiosity. The eight land-shells, though now extinct, and one living Succinea, are peculiar species found nowhere else. Mr. Cuming, however, informs me that an English Helix is common here, its eggs no doubt having been imported in some of the many introduced plants. Mr. Cuming collected on the coast sixteen species of sea-shells, of which seven, as far as he knows, are confined to this island. Birds and insects,! as 1 Among these few insects I was surprised to find a small Aphodius (702. spec.) and an Oryctes, both extremely numerous under dung. When the island was discovered it certainly possessed no quadruped, excepting perhaps a mouse: it becomes, therefore, a difficult point to ascertain, whether these stercovorous insects have since been imported by accident, or if aborigines, on what food they formerly subsisted. On the banks of the Plata, where, from the vast number of cattle and horses, the fine plains of turf are richly manured, it is vain to seek the many kinds XXI ST. HELENA 521 might have been expected, are very few in number ; indeed | believe all the birds have been introduced within late years. Partridges and pheasants are tolerably abundant: the island is much too English not to be subject to strict game-laws. I was told of a more unjust sacrifice to such ordinances than I ever heard of even in England. The poor people formerly used to burn a plant, which grows on the coast-rocks, and export the soda from its ashes; but a peremptory order came out prohibiting this practice, and giving as a reason that the partridges would have nowhere to build ! In my walks I passed more than once over the grassy plain, bounded by deep valleys, on which Longwood stands. Viewed from a short distance, it appears like a respectable gentleman’s country-seat. In front there are a few cultivated fields, and beyond them the smooth hill of coloured rocks called the Flag- staff, and the rugged square black mass of the Barn. On the whole the view was rather bleak and uninteresting. The only inconvenience I suffered during my walks was from the impe- tuous winds. One day I noticed a curious circumstance: standing on the edge of a plain, terminated by a great cliff of about a thousand feet in depth, I saw at the distance of a few yards right to windward some tern, struggling against a very strong breeze, whilst, where I stood, the air was quite calm. oi dung-feeding beetles which occur so abundantly in Europe. I observed only an Oryctes (the insects of this genus in Europe generally feed on decayed vegetable matter) and two species of Phanzeus, common in such situations. On the opposite side of the Cordillera in Chiloe another species of Phanzus is exceedingly abundant, and it buries the dung of the cattle in large earthen balls beneath the ground. There is reason to believe that the genus Phanzeus, before the introduction of cattle, acted as scavengers to man. In Europe, beetles, which find support in the matter which has already contributed towards the life of other and larger animals, are so numerous that there must be considerably more than one hundred different species. Con- sidering this, and observing what a quantity of food of this kind is lost on the plains of La Plata, I imagined I saw an instance where man had disturbed that chain by which so many animals are linked together in their native country. In Van Diemen’s Land, however, I found four species of Onthophagus, two of Aphodius, and one of a third genus, very abundant under the dung of cows; yet these latter animals had been then introduced only thirty-three years. Previously to that time, the Kangaroo and some other small animals were the only quadrupeds ; and their dung is of a very different quality from that of their successors introduced by man. In England the greater number of stercovorous beetles are confined in their appetites ; that is, they do not depend indifferently on any quadruped for the means of subsistence. The change, therefore, in habits, which must have taken place in Van Diemen’s Land, i: highly remarkable. I am indebted to the Rev. F. W. Hope, who, I hope, will permit me to call him my master in Entomology, for giving me the names of the foregoing insects. 522 ASCENSION CHAP. Approaching close to the brink, where the current seemed to be deflected upwards from the face of the cliff, I stretched out my arm, and immediately felt the full force of the wind; an invisible barrier, two yards in width, separated perfectly calm air from a strong blast. I so much enjoyed my rambles among the rocks and mountains of St. Helena, that I felt almost sorry on the morning of the 14th to descend to the town. Before noon I was on board, and the Beagle made sail. On the roth of July we reached Ascension. Those who have beheld a volcanic island, situated under an arid climate, will at once be able to picture to themselves the appearance of Ascension. They will imagine smooth conical hills of a bright red colour, with their summits generally truncated, rising separately out of a level surface of black rugged lava) A principal mound in the centre of the island seems the father of the lesser cones. It is called Green Hill; its name being taken from the faintest tinge of that colour, which at this time of the year is barely perceptible from the anchorage. To complete the desolate scene, the black rocks on the coast are lashed by a wild and turbulent sea. The settlement is near the beach; it consists of several houses and barracks placed irregularly, but well built of white freestone. The only inhabitants are marines, and some negroes liberated from slave-ships, who are paid and victualled by government. There is not a private person on the island. Many of the marines appeared well contented with their situation ; they think it better to serve their one-and-twenty years on shore, let it be what it may, than in a ship; in this choice, if I were a marine, I should most heartily agree. The next morning I ascended Green Hill, 2840 feet high, and thence walked across the island to the windward point. A good cart-road leads from the coast-settlement to the houses, gardens, and fields, placed near the summit of the central mountain. On the roadside there are milestones, and likewise cisterns, where each thirsty passer-by can drink some good water. Similar care is displayed in each part of the establish- ment, and especially in the management of the springs, so that a single drop of water may not be lost: indeed the whole island XXI VARIATION IN THE IMPORTED RATS 523 may be compared to a huge ship kept in first-rate order. I could not help, when admiring the active industry which had created such effects out of such means, at the same time regretting that it had been wasted on so poor and trifling an end. M. Lesson has remarked with justice, that the English nation alone would have thought of making the island of Ascension a productive spot; any other people would have held it as a mere fortress in the ocean. Near this coast nothing grows ; farther inland, an occasional green castor-oil plant, and a few grasshoppers, true friends of the desert, may be met with. Some grass is scattered over the surface of the central elevated region, and the whole much resembles the worse parts of the Welsh mountains. But, scanty as the pasture appears, about six hundred sheep, many goats, a few cows and horses, all thrive well on it. Of native animals, land-crabs and rats swarm in numbers. Whether the rat is really indigenous, may well be doubted ; there are two varieties as described by Mr. Waterhouse; one is of a black colour, with fine glossy fur, and lives on the grassy summit; the other is brown-coloured and less glossy, with longer hairs, and lives near the settlement on the coast. Both these varieties are one-third smaller than the common black rat (M. rattus); and they differ from it both in the colour and character of their fur, but in no other essential respect. I can hardly doubt that these rats (like the common mouse, which has also run wild) have been imported, and, as at the Galapagos, have varied from the effect of the new conditions to which they have been exposed : hence the variety on the summit of the island differs from that on the coast. Of native birds there are none; but the guinea- fowl, imported from the Cape de Verd Islands, is abundant, and the common fowl has likewise run wild. Some cats, which were originally turned out to destroy the rats and mice, have increased, so as to become a great plague. The island is entirely without trees, in which, and in every other respect, it is very far inferior to St. Helena. One of my excursions took me towards the S.W. extremity of the island. The day was clear and hot, and I saw the island, not smiling with beauty, but staring with naked hideousness. The lava streams are covered with hummocks, and are rugged to a degree which, geologically speaking, is not of easy 524 ASCENSION CHAP. explanation. The intervening spaces are concealed with layers of pumice, ashes, and volcanic tuff. Whilst passing this end of the island at sea, I could not imagine what the white patches were with which the whole plain was mottled; I now found that they were sea-fowl, sleeping in such full confidence, that even in mid-day a man could walk up and seize hold of them. These birds were the only living creatures I saw during the whole day. On the beach a great surf, although the breeze was light, came tumbling over the broken lava rocks. The geology of this island is in many respects interesting. CELLULAR FORMATION OF VOLCANIC BOMB In several places I noticed volcanic bombs, that is, masses of lava which have been shot through the air whilst fluid, and have consequently assumed a spherical or pear-shape. Not only their external form, but, in several cases, their internal structure shows in a very curious manner that they have revolved in their aérial course. The internal structure of one of these bombs, when broken, is represented very accurately in the accompanying woodcut. The central part is coarsely cellular, the cells decreasing in size towards the exterior; where there is a shell- like case about the third of an inch in thickness, of compact stone, which again is overlaid by the outside crust of finely cellular lava. I think there can be little doubt, first, that the external crust cooled rapidly in the state in which we now see it ; XXI BEDS OF INFUSORIA 525 secondly, that the still fluid lava within was packed by the centrifugal force, generated by the revolving of the bomb, against the external cooled crust, and so produced the solid shell of stone; and lastly, that the centrifugal force, by relieving the pressure in the more central parts of the bomb, allowed the heated vapours to expand their cells, thus forming the coarsely cellular mass of the centre. A hill, formed of the older series of volcanic rocks, and which has been incorrectly considered as the crater of a volcano, is remarkable from its broad, slightly hollowed, and circular summit having been filled up with many successive layers of ashes and fine scoria. These saucer-shaped layers crop out on the margin, forming perfect rings of many different colours, giving to the summit a most fantastic appearance ; one of these rings is white and broad, and resembles a course round which horses have been exercised ; hence the hill has been called the Devil’s Riding School. I brought away specimens of one of the tufaceous layers of a pinkish colour; and it is a most extraordinary fact that Professor Ehrenberg’ finds it almost wholly composed of matter which has been organised ; he detects in it some siliceous-shielded, fresh-water infusoria, and no less than twenty-five different kinds of the siliceous tissue of plants, chiefly of grasses. From the absence of all carbonaceous matter, Professor Ehrenberg believes that these organic bodies have passed through the volcanic fire, and have been erupted in the state in which we now see them. The appearance of the layers induced me to believe that they had been deposited under water, though from the extreme dryness of the climate I was forced to imagine that torrents of rain had probably fallen during some great eruption, and that thus a temporary lake had been formed, into which the ashes fell. But it may now be suspected that the lake was not a temporary one. Anyhow we may feel sure that at some former epoch the climate and productions of Ascension were very different from what they now are. Where on the face of the earth can we find a spot on which close investigation will not discover signs of that endless cycle of change, to which this earth has been, is, and will be subjected ? On leaving Ascension we sailed for Bahia, on the coast of 1 Alonats. der Konig. Ahad. d. Wiss. su Berlin. Nom April 1845. 526 BAHIA, BRAZIL CHAP. Brazil, in order to complete the chronometrical measurement of the world. We arrived there on August Ist, and stayed four days, during which I took several long walks. I was glad to find my enjoyment in tropical scenery had not decreased from the want of novelty, even in the slightest degree. The elements of the scenery are so simple that they are worth mentioning, as a proof on what trifling circumstances exquisite natural beauty depends. The country may be described as a level plain of about three hundred feet in elevation, which in all parts has been worn into flat-bottomed valleys. This structure is remarkable ina granitic land, but is nearly universal in all those softer formations of which plains are usually composed, The whole surface is covered by various kinds of stately trees, interspersed with patches of cultivated ground, out of which houses, convents, and chapels arise. It must be remembered that within the tropics the wild luxuriance of nature is not lost even in the vicinity of large cities ; for the natural vegetation of the hedges and hill- sides overpowers in picturesque effect the artificial labour of man. Hence, there are only a few spots where the bright red soil affords a strong contrast with the universal clothing of green. From the edges of the plain there are distant views either of the ocean, or of the great Bay with its low wooded shores, and on which numerous boats and canoes show their white sails. Excepting from these points, the scene is extremely limited ; following the level pathways, on each hand, only glimpses into the wooded valleys below can be obtained. The houses, I may add, and especially the sacred edifices, are built in a peculiar and rather fantastic style of architecture. They are all white- washed ; so that when illumined by the brilliant sun of mid-day, and as seen against the pale blue sky of the horizon, they stand out more like shadows than real buildings. Such are the elements of the scenery, but it is a hopeless attempt to paint the general effect. Learned naturalists describe these scenes of the tropics by naming a multitude of objects, and mentioning some characteristic feature of each. To a learned traveller this possibly may communicate some definite ideas; but who else from seeing a plant in an herbarium can imagine its appearance when growing in its native soil? Who from seeing choice plants in a hothouse can XX1 TROPICAL SCENERY 527 magnify some into the dimensions of forest-trees, and crowd others into an entangled jungle? Who when examining in the cabinet of the entomologist the gay exotic butterflies, and singular cicadas, will associate with these lifeless objects the ceaseless harsh music of the latter and the lazy flight of the former,—the sure accompaniments of the still, glowing noonday of the tropics? It is when the sun has attained its greatest height that such scenes should be viewed; then the dense splendid foliage of the mango hides the ground with its darkest shade, whilst the upper branches are rendered from the pro- fusion of light of the most brilliant green. In the temperate zones the case is different—the vegetation there is not so dark or so rich, and hence the rays of the declining sun, tinged of a red, purple, or bright yellow colour, add most to the beauties of those climes. When quietly walking along the shady pathways, and admiring each successive view, I wished to find language to express my ideas. Epithet after epithet was found too weak to convey to those who have not visited the intertropical regions the sensation of delight which the mind experiences. I have said that the plants in a hothouse fail to communicate a just idea of the vegetation, yet I must recur to it. The land is one great wild, untidy, luxuriant hothouse, made by Nature for herself, but taken possession of by man, who has studded it with gay houses and formal gardens. How great would be the desire in every admirer of nature to behold, if such were possible, the scenery of another planet! yet to every person in Europe, it may be truly said, that at the distance of only a few degrees from his native soil the glories of another world are opened to him. In my last walk I stopped again and again to gaze on these beauties, and endeavoured to fix in my mind for ever an impression which at the time I knew sooner or later must fail. The form of the orange-tree, the cocoa-nut, the palm, the mango, the tree-fern, the banana, will remain clear and separate ; but the thousand beauties which unite these into one perfect scene must fade away ; yet they will leave, like a tale heard in childhood, a picture full of indistinct, but most beautiful figures. August 6th.—In the afternoon we stood out to sea, with the intention of making a direct course to the Cape de Verd 528 PERNAMBUCO, BRAZIL CHAP, Islands. Unfavourable winds, however, delayed us, and on the 12th we ran into Pernambuco,—a large city on the coast of Brazil, in latitude 8° south. We anchored outside the reef ; but in a short time a pilot came on board and took us into the inner harbour, where we lay close to the town. Pernambuco is built on some narrow and low sand-banks, which are separated from each other by shoal channels of salt water. The three parts of the town are connected together by two long bridges built on wooden piles. The town is in all parts disgusting, the streets being narrow, ill-paved, and filthy ; the houses tall and gloomy. The season of heavy rains had hardly come to an end, and hence the surrounding country, which is scarcely raised above the level of the sea, was flooded with water; and I failed in all my attempts to take long walks. The flat swampy land on which Pernambuco stands is surrounded, at the distance of a few miles, by a semicircle of low hills, or rather by the edge of a country elevated perhaps two hundred feet above the sea. The old city of Olinda stands on one extremity of this range. One day I took a canoe, and proceeded up one of the channels to visit it; I found the old town from its situation both sweeter and cleaner than that of Pernambuco. I must here commemorate what happened for the first time during our nearly five years’ wandering, namely, having met with a want of politeness; I was refused in a sullen manner at two different houses, and obtained with difficulty from a third, permission to pass through their gardens to an uncultivated hill, for the purpose of viewing the country. I feel glad that this happened in the land of the Brazilians, for I bear them no good will—a land also of slavery, and therefore of moral debasement. A Spaniard would have felt ashamed at the very thought of refusing such a request, or of behaving to a stranger with rudeness. The channel by which we went to and returned from Olinda was bordered on each side by mangroves, which sprang like a miniature forest out of the greasy mud-banks. The bright green colour of these bushes always reminded me of the rank grass in a churchyard; both are nourished by putrid exhalations; the one speaks of death past, and the other too often of death to come. XXt SINGULAR REEF 529 The most curious object which I saw in this neighbour- hood was the reef that forms the harbour. I doubt whether in the whole world any other natural structure has so artificial an appearance.’ It runs for a length of several miles in an absolutely straight line, parallel to and not far distant from the shore. It varices in width from thirty to sixty yards, and its surface is level and smooth; it is composed of obscurely- stratified hard sandstone. At high water the waves break over it; at low water its summit is left dry, and it might then be mistaken for a breakwater erected by Cyclopean workmen. On this coast the currents of the sea tend to throw up in front of the land long spits and bars of loose sand, and on one of these part of the town of Pernambuco stands. In former times a long spit of this nature seems to have become con- CICADA HOMOPTERA. solidated by the percolation of calcareous matter, and after- wards to have been gradually upheaved ; the outer and loose parts during this process having been worn away by the action of the sea, and the solid nucleus left as we now see it. Although night and day the waves of the open Atlantic, turbid with sediment, are driven against the steep outside edges of this wall of stone, yet the oldest pilots know of no tradition of any change in its appearance. This durability is much the most curious fact in its history; it is due to a tough layer, a few inches thick, of calcareous matter, wholly formed by the successive growth and death of the small shells of Serpule, together with some few barnacles and nullipore. These nullipore, which are hard, very simply-organised sea-plants, play an analogous and important part in protecting the upper surfaces of coral-reefs, behind and within the breakers, where 1 T have described this Bar in detail in the Lond. and Edin, Phil, Mag. vol. xix. (1841), p. 257. 2M 530 SLAVERY CHAP. the true corals, during the outward growth of the mass, become killed by exposure to the sun and air. These insignificant organic beings, especially the Serpulz, have done good service to the people of Pernambuco ; for without their protective aid the bar of sandstone would inevitably have been long ago worn away, and without the bar there would have been no harbour. On the roth of August we finally left the shores of Brazil. I thank God, I shall never again visit a slave-country. To this day, if I hear a distant scream, it recalls with painful vividness my feelings, when, passing a house near Pernambuco, I heard the most pitiable moans, and could not but suspect that some poor slave was: being tortured, yet knew that I was as powerless as a child even to remonstrate. I suspected that these moans were from a tortured slave, for I was told that this was the case in another instance. Near Rio de Janeiro I lived opposite to an old lady, who kept screws to crush the fingers of her female slaves. I have stayed in a house where a young household mulatto, daily and hourly, was reviled, beaten, and persecuted enough to break the spirit of the lowest animal. I have seen a little boy, six or seven years old, struck thrice with a horse-whip (before I could interfere) on his naked head, for having handed me a glass of water not quite clean; I saw his father tremble at a mere glance from his master’s eye. These latter cruelties were witnessed by me in a Spanish colony, in which it has always been said that slaves are better treated than by the Portuguese, English, or other European nations. I have seen at Rio Janeiro a power- ful negro afraid to ward off a blow directed, as he thought, at his face. I was present when a kind-hearted man was on the point of separating for ever the men, women, and little children of a large number of families who had long lived together. I will not even allude to the many heart-sickening atrocities which I authentically heard of ;—nor would I have mentioned the above revolting details, had I not met with several people, so blinded by the constitutional gaiety of the negro, as to speak of slavery as a tolerable evil. Such people have generally visited at the houses of the upper classes, where the domestic slaves are usually well treated ; and they have not, like myself, lived amongst the lower classes. Such inquirers will ask XXI SLAVERY 531 slaves about their condition ; they forget that the slave must indeed be dull who does not calculate on the chance of his answer reaching his master’s ears. It is argued that self-interest will prevent excessive cruelty ; as if self-interest protected our domestic animals, which are far less likely than degraded slaves to stir up the rage of their savage masters. It is an argument long since protested against with noble feeling, and strikingly exemplified, by the ever-illustrious Humboldt. It is often attempted to palliate slavery by comparing the state of slaves with our poorer countrymen ; if the misery of our poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin; but how this bears on slavery, I cannot see; as well might the use of the thumb-screw be defended in one land, by showing that men in another land suffered from some dreadful disease. Those who look tenderly at the slave-owner, and with a cold heart at the slave, never seem to put themselves into the position of the latter ;—-what a cheerless prospect, with not even a hope of change! picture to yourself the chance, ever hanging over you, of your wife and your little children—those objects which nature urges even the slave to call his own— being torn from you and sold like beasts to the first bidder ! 532 RETROSPECT CHAP. And these deeds are done and palliated by men who profess to love their neighbours as themselves, who believe in God, and pray that His Will be done on earth! It makes one’s blood boil, yet heart tremble, to think that we Englishmen and our American descendants, with their boastful cry of liberty, have been and are so guilty; but it is a consolation to reflect, that we at least have made a greater sacrifice than ever made by any nation, to expiate our sin. On the last day of August we anchored for the second time at Porto Praya in the Cape de Verd archipelago ; thence we proceeded to the Azores, where we stayed six days. On the 2nd of October we made the shores of England ; and at Falmouth I left the Beagle, having lived on board the good little vessel nearly five years. Our Voyage having come to an end, I will take a short retrospect of the advantages and disadvantages, the pains and pleasures, of our circumnavigation of the world. If a person asked my advice, before undertaking a long voyage, my answer would depend upon his possessing a decided taste for some branch of knowledge, which could by this means be advanced. No doubt it is a high satisfaction to behold various countries and the many races of mankind, but the pleasures gained at the time do not counterbalance the evils. It is necessary to look forward to a harvest, however distant that may be, when some fruit will be reaped, some good effected. Many of the losses which must be experienced are obvious ; such as that of the society of every old friend, and of the sight of those places with which every dearest remembrance is so intimately connected. These losses, however, are at the time partly relieved by the exhaustless delight of anticipating the long-wished-for day of return. If, as poets say, life is a dream, I am sure in a voyage these are the visions which best serve to pass away the long night. Other losses, although not at first felt, tell heavily after a period: these are the want of room, of seclusion, of rest; the jading feeling of constant hurry; the privation of small luxuries, the loss of domestic society, and even of music and the other pleasures of imagination. When such trifles are mentioned, it is evident that the real grievances, XXI RETROSPECT 533 excepting from accidents, of a sea-life are at an end. The short space of sixty years has made an astonishing difference in the facility of distant navigation. Even in the time of Cook, a man who left his fireside for such expeditions under- went severe privations. A yacht now, with every luxury of life, can circumnavigate the globe. Besides the vast improve- ments in ships and naval resources, the whole western shores of America are thrown open, and Australia has become the capital of a rising continent. How different are the circum- stances to a man shipwrecked at the present day in the Pacific, to what they were in the time of Cook! Since his voyage a hemisphere has been added to the civilised world. If a person suffer much from sea-sickness, let him weigh it heavily in the balance. I speak from experience: it is no trifling evil, cured in a week. If, on the other hand, he take pleasure in naval tactics, he will assuredly have full scope for his taste. But it must be borne in mind how large a pro- portion of the time, during a long voyage, is spent on the water, as compared with the days in harbour. And what are the boasted glories of the illimitable ocean? A tedious waste, a desert of water, as the Arabian calls it. No doubt there are some delightful scenes. A moonlight night, with the clear heavens and the dark glittering sea, and the white sails filled by the soft air of a gently-blowing trade-wind ; a dead calm, with the heaving surface polished like a mirror, and all still except the occasional flapping of the canvas. It is well once to behold a squall with its rising arch and coming fury, or the heavy gale of wind and mountainous waves. I confess, however, my imagination had painted something more grand, more terrific, in the full-grown storm. It is an incomparably finer spectacle when beheld on shore, where the waving trees, the wild flight of the birds, the dark shadows and bright lights, the rushing of the torrents, all proclaim the strife of the unloosed elements. At sea the albatross and little petrel fly as if the storm were their proper sphere, the water rises and sinks as if fulfilling its usual task, the ship alone and its inhabitants seem the objects of wrath. On a forlorn and weather-beaten coast the scene is indeed different, but the feelings partake more of horror than of wild delight. Let us now look at the brighter side of the past time. The 534 RETROSPECT CHAP. pleasure derived from beholding the scenery and the general aspect of the various countries we have visited has decidedly been the most constant and highest source of enjoyment. It is probable that the picturesque beauty of many parts of Europe exceeds anything which we beheld. But there is a growing pleasure in comparing the character of the scenery in different countries, which to a certain degree is distinct from merely admiring its beauty. It depends chiefly on an acquaintance with the individual parts of each view; I am strongly induced to believe that as in music, the person who understands every note will, if he also possesses a proper taste, more thoroughly enjoy the whole, so he who examines each part of a fine view may also thoroughly comprehend the full and combined effect. Hence, a traveller should be a botanist, for in all views plants form the chief embellishment. Group masses of naked rock even in the wildest forms, and they may for a time afford a sublime spectacle, but they will soon grow monotonous. Paint them with bright and varied colours, as in Northern Chile, they will become fantastic ; clothe them with vegetation, they must form a decent, if not a beautiful picture. When I say that the scenery of parts of Europe is probably superior to anything which we beheld, I except, as a class by itself, that of the intertropical zones. The two classes cannot be compared together; but I have already often enlarged on the grandeur of those regions. As the force of impressions generally depends on preconceived ideas, I may add that mine were taken from the vivid descriptions in the Personal Narrative of Humboldt, which far exceed in merit anything else which I have read. Yet with these high-wrought ideas my feelings were far from partaking of a tinge of disappointment on my first and final landing on the shores of Brazil. Among the scenes which are deeply impressed on my mind, none exceed in sublimity the primeval forests undefaced by the hand of man; whether those of Brazil, where the powers of Life are predominant, or those of Tierra del Fuego, where Death and Decay prevail. Both are temples filled with the varied productions of the God of Nature :—no one can stand in these solitudes unmoved, and not feel that there is more in man than the mere breath of his body. In calling up images of the past, I find that the plains of Patagonia XXI RETROSPECT 535 frequently cross before my eyes; yet these plains are pro- nounced by all wretched and useless. They can be described only by negative characters ; without habitations, without water, without trees, without mountains, they support merely a few dwarf plants. Why then, and the case is not peculiar to my- self, have these arid wastes taken so firm a hold on my memory? Why have not the still more level, the greener and more fertile Pampas, which are serviceable to mankind, produced an equal impression? I can scarcely analyse these feelings: but it must be partly owing to the free scope given to the imagination. The plains of Patagonia are boundless, for they are scarcely passable, and hence unknown ; they bear the stamp of having lasted, as they are now, for ages, and there appears no limit to their duration through future time. If, as the ancients supposed, the flat earth was surrounded by an impassable breadth of water, or by deserts heated to an intolerable excess, who would not look at these last boundaries to man’s know- ledge with deep but ill-defined sensations ? Lastly, of natural scenery, the views from lofty mountains, though certainly in one sense not beautiful, are very memorable. When looking down from the highest crest of the Cordillera, the mind, undisturbed by minute details, was filled with the stupendous dimensions of the surrounding masses. Of individual objects, perhaps nothing is more certain to create astonishment than the first sight in his native haunt of a barbarian,—of man in his lowest and most savage state. One’s mind hurries back over past centuries, and then asks, Could our progenitors have been men like these ?>—men, whose very signs and expressions are less intelligible to us than those of the domesticated animals; men, who do not possess the instinct of those animals, nor yet appear to boast of human reason, or at least of arts consequent on that reason. I do not believe it is possible to describe or paint the difference between savage and civilised man. It is the difference between a wild and tame animal: and part of the interest in beholding a savage is the same which would lead every one to desire to see the lion in his desert, the tiger tearing his prey in the jungle, or the rhinoceros wandering over the wild plains of Africa. Among the other most remarkable spectacles which we 536 RETROSPECT CHAP. have beheld, may be ranked the Southern Cross, the cloud of Magellan, and the other constellations of the southern hemisphere —the waterspout—the glacier leading its blue stream of ice, overhanging the sea in a bold precipice—a lagoon-island raised by the reef-building corals—an active volcano—and the overwhelming effects of a violent earthquake. These latter phenomena, perhaps, possess for me a peculiar interest, from their intimate connexion with the geological structure of the world. The earthquake, however, must be to every one a most impressive event ; the earth, considered from our earliest childhood as the type of solidity, has oscillated like a thin crust beneath our feet; and in seeing the laboured works of man in a moment overthrown, we feel the insignificance of his boasted power. It has been said that the love of the chase is an inherent delight in man—a relic of an instinctive passion. If so, I am sure the pleasure of living in the open air, with the sky for a roof and the ground for a table, is part of the same feeling ; it is the savage returning to his wild and native habits. I always look back to our boat cruises, and my land journeys, when through unfrequented countries, with an extreme delight, which no scenes of civilisation could have created. I do not doubt that every traveller must remember the glowing sense of happiness which he experienced when he first breathed in a foreign clime, where the civilised man had seldom or never trod. There are several other sources of enjoyment in a long voyage which are of a more reasonable nature. The map of the world ceases to be a blank; it becomes a picture full of the most varied and animated figures. Each part assumes its proper dimensions: continents are not looked at in the light of islands, or islands considered as mere specks, which are, in truth, larger than many kingdoms of Europe. Africa, or North and South America, are well-sounding names, and easily pronounced ; but it is not until having sailed for weeks along small portions of their shores that one is thoroughly convinced what vast spaces on our immense world these names imply. From seeing the present state, it is impossible not to look forward with high expectations to the future progress of nearly an entire hemisphere. The march of improvement, consequent XXI RETROSPECT 537 on the introduction of Christianity throughout the South Sea, probably stands by itself in the records of history. It is the more striking when we remember that only sixty years since, Cook, whose excellent judgment none will dispute, could foresee no prospect of a change. Yet these changes have now been effected by the philanthropic spirit of the British nation. In the same quarter of the globe Australia is rising, or indeed may be said to have risen, into a grand centre of civilisation, which, at some not very remote period, will rule as empress over the southern hemisphere. It is impossible for an Englishman to behold these distant colonies without a high pride and satisfaction. To hoist the British flag seems to draw with it as a certain consequence, wealth, prosperity, and civilisation. In conclusion it appears to me that nothing can be more improving to a young naturalist than a journey in distant countries. It both sharpens and partly allays that want and craving which, as Sir J. Herschel remarks, a man experiences although every corporeal sense be fully satisfied. The excite- ment from the novelty of objects, and the chance of success, stimulate him to increased activity. Moreover, as a number of isolated facts soon become uninteresting, the habit of com- parison leads to generalisation. On the other hand, as the traveller stays but a short time in each place, his descriptions must generally consist of mere sketches, instead of detailed observations. Hence arises, as I have found to my cost, a constant tendency to fill up the wide gaps ot knowledge by inaccurate and superficial hypotheses. But I have too deeply enjoyed the voyage not to recom- mend any naturalist, although he must not expect to be so fortunate in his companions as I have been, to take all chances, and to start, on travels by land if possible, if otherwise on a long voyage. He may feel assured he will meet with no difficulties or dangers, excepting in rare cases, nearly so bad as he beforehand anticipates. In a moral point of view the effect ought to be to teach him good-humoured patience, freedom from selfishness, the habit of acting for himself, and of making the best of every occurrence. In short, he ought to partake of the characteristic qualities of most sailors. Travelling ought 538 REER OS PIGGds CHAP. XX1 also to teach him distrust; but at the same time he will discover how many truly kind-hearted people there are, with whom he never before had, or ever again will have any further communication, who yct are ready to offer him the most disinterested assistance, ASCENSION. TERNS AND NODDIES ee a as ae ear Crem 5 a a ae vt OG Wpeaneorg pg warp POM HE pracy 09 Ten, 89 ie ees ° : 06 0G 7 soprssoy wm i pena | dw, \ 3 F Pi = Py Nae : a — DCTUDST TS vs + eoruquyy ae \ SUBOMP oi “e Fs S nes sar las 20S" a eT a vai Eto it H PE © ¢ o8tyy pp. | hee i = t i" soppqeng: : ” eS) ' ob og 09 ities 180 160 Cle No i i = aioe ; og Ne feat) [FRANZ JOSEF LAND i ARCA? IC OIC E A \I cr pe ie Dis Fedlendence By z ea i ‘ie 5 FLED artand 272 Memidyl? vol ATR OC LT Oo € KR AM in| ae PE SEL MilesekI 1 a (el bi | \ es Le SPITABERGEN AI} Ay epee “a : Germania ll “f ne Temely I. 24 g - Teamette I. : | eee An dient oe Bem.» BARENTS oe iar Pe ; ) SE air sberia. WrangefZ . 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