CHAPTER XXVIII.

A VERY FEW REMARKS WITH REFERENCE TO THE DELUGE.

To account for offering a few remarks on a subject so important and

difficult as that of the Deluge, I beg to say that reflections,

arising out of facts witnessed during the Beagle’s voyage, have

occasioned them; and, as results of that expedition, it has appeared

to me that they are neither irrelevant to the narrative, nor likely

to be altogether uninteresting to young men in the navy.

I suffered much anxiety in former years from a disposition to doubt,

if not disbelieve, the inspired History written by Moses. I knew so

little of that record, or of the intimate manner in which the Old

Testament is connected with the New, that I fancied some events there

related might be mythological or fabulous, while I sincerely believed

the truth of others; a wavering between opinions, which could only

be productive of an unsettled, and therefore unhappy, state of mind.

Some young men, I am well aware, are in a similar condition, while

many others are content to set aside all reflection, and do as the

world does; or rather, as those do among whom they generally live.

Natural affection and respect for good parents, relations, and

elders, never can lead a young man astray; but there is, perhaps,

no guide more fallible or dangerous than the common custom of those

inexperienced persons who associate together, chiefly for lack

of fixed occupation; and whose principal object is to drive away

self-examination, or prolonged thought, by a continual succession of

idle amusement, or vivid excitement.

Wholesome and necessary as amusement and recreation are, both for

mind and body, every one knows how insipid, even painful their

excess becomes; and external evidence shows but too plainly where

the happiness, the blessings, and the comfort men might enjoy, have

by themselves been slighted, or destroyed, from forgetting the

line between using, and abusing; and by turning a deaf ear to the

reflection that they are but ‘tenants at will.’

Much of my own uneasiness was caused by reading works written by men

of Voltaire’s school; and by those of geologists who contradict,

by implication, if not in plain terms, the authenticity of the

Scriptures; before I had any acquaintance with the volume which

they so incautiously impugn. For geology, as a useful branch of

science,[1] I have as high a respect as for any other young branch

of the tree of knowledge, which has yet to undergo the trial of

experience; and no doubt exists in my own breast that every such

additional branch, if proved by time to be sound and healthy, will

contribute its share of nourishment and vigour to the tree which

sprung from an immortal root. For men who, like myself formerly, are

willingly ignorant of the Bible, and doubt its divine inspiration, I

can only have one feeling--sincere sorrow.

Few have time, as well as inclination, to go far into both sides of

any question; but truth can hardly be drawn out of the well unless

some exertion be made, in examining each argument, or in selecting a

well-tried and experienced guide. It is idle to say, as I have heard

asserted, that such works as those above-mentioned do little harm;

experience proves the contrary; of which I am made painfully aware,

not only by my own conscience, but by conversation with friends.

While led away by sceptical ideas, and knowing extremely little of

the Bible, one of my remarks to a friend, on crossing vast plains

composed of rolled stones bedded in diluvial detritus some hundred

feet in depth, was “this could never have been effected by a forty

days’ flood,”--an expression plainly indicative of the turn of mind,

and ignorance of Scripture. I was quite willing to disbelieve what

I thought to be the Mosaic account, upon the evidence of a hasty

glance, though knowing next to nothing of the record I doubted:--and

I mention this particularly, because I have conversed with persons

fond of geology, yet knowing no more of the Bible than I knew at that

time. Thus much I feel it necessary to say, in accounting for my

own approach to a subject in which all men feel deeply interested;

and which has therefore been so well treated of, that these remarks

would be useless, were it not that they may reach the eyes of young

sailors, who have not always access to works of authority.

The Mosaic account of the Creation is so intimately connected with

that of the Deluge that I must ask my young reader (whom alone I

presume to address on this subject) to turn to the first chapter of

Genesis, and refer to a few verses with me. We soon find a remarkable

fact, which shows to my mind that the knowledge of Moses was

super-human: his declaration in an early age that light was created

before the sun and moon, which must till then have appeared to be

the sources of light. In the fourth verse it is stated that “God

divided the light from the darkness.” This may have been effected by

a rotation of the earth on its axis, turning each side in succession

to the light; otherwise, had the earth remained stationary, light

must have been destroyed to admit darkness, and there must have

been repeated creations of light. The light was called day--“and

the evening and the morning were the first day.” Of course there

could have been no morning previous to the creation of light; and

the first portion of time, consonant to our present expressions,

would have been that which elapsed between light and darkness, or

evening. The length of a day being determined by the rotation of

the earth on its axis; turning round once, so as to make an evening

and a morning to each spot on the globe; the time occupied by that

rotation is a natural object of interest. In the 12th verse it is

said that grass, herbs, and trees, were brought forth; in the 14th

and 16th, that lights were made to divide the day from the night; and

that the greater light was to rule the day. It is known that neither

trees, herbs, nor grass can exist long without the light and heat

of the sun, therefore the rotation of the earth between the third

day, when vegetation was produced, and the fourth, could not have

been very different, in velocity, from its present rotation. Some

men, of rare abilities, have thought that the “days” of creation were

indefinite periods, notwithstanding the statement in verse 14, which

affirms that the lights in the firmament of heaven were to divide the

day from the night; and to “be for signs, and for seasons, and for

days, and years.” In this one verse do we not see that the day was

less than a year (signs and seasons, days and years); for had the

day there meant been more than a year would not the words have been

differently placed, namely--signs and seasons, years and days? Can

we think that day means one space of time in the former part, and

another space of time in the latter part of that one verse? Another

indication that the word day, used in the first chapter of Genesis,

does not mean a period much, if at all, longer than our present day,

is--that it is spoken of as alternating with night. Although the

word day is used in other chapters of the Bible, even so soon as

the 4th verse of the 2d chapter of Genesis, to express a period, or

space of time longer than our present day, the word night is never so

applied:--hence, as the earth turns uniformly on its axis, and, so

far as we can reason from analogy, must have turned uniformly, while

turning at all, the word night in the 5th verse interprets the length

of a day.

Some have laid stress upon the declaration that a thousand years are

with the Lord as one day:--but what is the context?[2] To lengthen

the day to a thousand years, on account of this and a similar

expression, is not more reasonable than it would be to reduce it

to a night-watch. What is a watch in the night when passed?--next

to nothing:--so are a thousand years with the Almighty. These

considerations tend to show how, without Chaldee or Hebrew learning,

a man, with a common English education, may convince himself of a

fact which has lately been so much controverted.[3]

Partly referring to such indefinite periods as we have been

discussing,--and partly to reasoning unaided by revelation,--some

geologists have said that there were successive creations, at

intervals of vast duration. They have imagined an age in which only

the ‘so-called’ lowest orders of animated creatures existed,[4] an

age of fishes, an age of reptiles, an age of mammalia, and an age in

which man appeared: statements which have obtained much attention.

Fossil fishes and shell mollusca[5] have been found in coal measures,

and in subjacent formations:--how could this have happened if

vegetables had been produced first; then swept away and converted

into coal, and that afterwards the lower orders of animals had

appeared? We know that the fossil plants of the coal formations are

similar in structure to vegetables now growing on the earth, which

cannot flourish without warmth, and the light of the sun. Vegetation

was produced on the third day, the sun on the fourth. If the third

day was an age, how was the vegetable world nourished? But anomalies

such as these appear to be endless in most geological theories: I

will leave them for the present and continue my course.

In the 16th verse it is said that “God made two great lights; the

greater light to rule the day, the lesser light to rule the night:

the stars also;” that is, he made the stars also.

It is not stated here that the Almighty made all the stars at that

time; nor can I, after consulting very able men, find any passage of

such an import. That all the stars dependant upon, or connected with,

our solar system, namely, the planets and their satellites, were then

created, seems to be evident from the fact of their revolving round

our sun; but farther than this, it is not thought necessary (may we

not presume) for man to know; therefore it is not revealed to us. In

the ancient book of Job, the creation of the world is thus alluded

to. “Who laid the corner stone thereof, when the morning stars sang

together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.”[6] But the earth

was finished, and vegetation produced, before the creation of stars

mentioned in Gen. i. 16; therefore, unless the ‘corner-stone’ alludes

to man, it may be inferred that there were stars in existence besides

those made on the fourth day. Of course, the ‘singing of the stars’

is a figurative expression; but as we do not meet with any similar

metaphor in the Bible, unconnected with some object that we know

exists; we may infer that stars existed when the allegorical, or

mystical corner-stone was thus laid.[7]

In verses 29 and 30, the food for man and beast is mentioned, and

with reference to the Deluge this should be borne in mind. It may be

said that the teeth of some animals are so formed as to be fit only

for grazing, or browzing; that beasts of prey have teeth adapted to

tearing and gnawing; and that man requires meat; but we must remember

that dogs and wild beasts thrive upon a vegetable diet, and that some

men never touch meat, even in the present state of the world: very

different probably from its condition before the flood, as may be

concluded from the inferior duration of human life.

The 2d and 3d verses of chap. ii. recall to mind the wonderful fact

that the seventh day has been a marked division of time from the

earliest period of historical record.[8]

It is now well known that all nations, and almost all tribes of the

human race, preserve traditions of a great flood in which nearly

all men were destroyed:[9] and it is also established as a fact,

that nearly all parts of the earth, hitherto examined, bear witness

to their having been at some time covered by the ocean. Instead of

ascribing these effects to the universal deluge, many geologists say

that the earth is in a continual, though gradual state of change;

that in consequence of this general mobility, places now far above

the sea were once beneath it; that districts, or countries, may have

been inundated in one quarter, and other regions elsewhere, but

that an universal deluge never could have happened. This is implied

plainly enough, if not asserted, in several geological works.

In the Beagle’s examination of the southern parts of South America,

I had opportunities of observing immense tracts of land composed,

solely, of fossil shells, bones, and an earth which looked like dried

sandy mud:--extensive ranges of country where no solid rock could be

found, only rolled or shingle stones, embedded to a great depth in

earth, exactly like that described above;--and a wide district, at

least fifty miles across, covered with lava of which the surface was

nearly horizontal. (San José, San Julian, Santa Cruz.)

I brought to England many specimens of these shells, which, although

taken from within a few feet of the surface of the land, were found

to have been pressed together, crushed, and penetrated by mud, in a

manner that never could have been caused by the weight of earth then

lying above them, because, though solid, it could neither have mashed

the shells, nor worked into their inmost recesses. It seems evident

to me that those shells have undergone enormous pressure beneath an

ocean, when they were surrounded with mud.[10] But previous to such

pressure, the shells must have grown naturally somewhere:--certainly

not at the bottom of an ocean; because they are shells of a

comparatively delicate structure which are usually found within a

few feet of low water; some at least of the number being identical

with living species.

If the square miles of solid land in which those myriads of shells

are now embedded, had been upheaved (as geologists say), either

gradually, or rapidly, shells could not be found there in their

present confused and compressed state. Had the land sunk down many

thousand feet with shells upon it, they might have been covered

with mud, and on being afterwards upheaved again they would have

appeared embedded regularly where they grew, in a matrix which,

with the pressure of a superincumbent ocean, might have flattened

and penetrated them: but they would not have been torn away from

their roots, rolled, broken, mashed, and mixed in endless confusion,

similarly to those now in my possession.

There is also another consideration: geologists who contend for the

central heat of the earth assert that substances subjected to great

pressure under the sea become altered: hence, in conformity with

their theory, these shells could not have been long buried under a

deep ocean, and afterwards raised in their pristine state. So little

changed are these shells, except in form, that they appear as if they

had been heaped together and squeezed in mud within a few years from

the present time.

One remarkable place, easy of access, where any person can inspect

these shelly remains, is Port San Julian. There, cliffs, from ten

to a hundred feet high, are composed of nothing but such earth and

fossils; and as those dug from the very tops of the cliffs are just

as much compressed as those at any other part, it follows that they

were acted upon by an immense weight not now existing. From this

one simple fact may be deduced the conclusions--that Patagonia

was once under the sea; that the sea grew deeper over the land in

a tumultuous manner, rushing to and fro, tearing up and heaping

together shells which once grew regularly or in beds: that the

depth of water afterwards became so great as to squeeze or mass the

earth and shells together by its enormous pressure; and that after

being so forced down, the cohesion of the mass became sufficient to

resist the separating power of other waves, during the subsidence

of that ocean which had overwhelmed the land. If it be shewn that

Patagonia was under a deep sea, not in consequence of the land having

sunk, but because of the water having risen, it will follow as a

necessary consequence that every other portion of the globe must

have been flooded to a nearly equal height, at the same time; since

the tendency to equilibrium in fluids would prevent any one part of

an ocean from rising much above any other part, unless sustained at

a greater elevation by external force; such as the attraction of

the moon, or sun; or a strong wind; or momentum derived from their

agency. Hence therefore, if Patagonia was covered to a great depth,

all the world was covered to a great depth; and from those shells

alone my own mind is convinced, (independent of the Scripture) that

this earth has undergone an universal deluge.

The immense fields of lava, spoken of in a preceding page (633), and

which to an ordinary observer appear to be horizontal, are spread

almost evenly over such an extent of country, that the only probable

conclusion seems to be, that the lava was ejected while a deep sea

covered the earth, and that tidal oscillations,[11] combined with

immense pressure, spread and smoothed it, while in a rapidly cooling

though viscous state, over the surface of the land.

The vast quantity of shingle, or rounded stones of all sizes, may

be accounted for in a manner unconnected with that of water acting

upon a shore; though doubtless a great proportion of the shingle we

see has been rounded in that manner. Melted stone, thrown out of a

volcano, and propelled through water with great velocity, might be

rounded and cooled as shot are when dropped into water from a tower.

In modern volcanoes we observe that some matter is thrown into the

air, while other, and the greater quantity, runs over the edges of a

crater, overflowing the adjacent tracts of land.

Proceeding to the west coast of South America, we find that near

Concepcion there are beds of marine shells at a great height above

the level of the sea. These, say geologists, were once under the

ocean, but, in consequence of the gradual upheaval of the land, are

now far above it. They are closely compressed together, and some are

broken, though of a very solid and durable nature; and being near the

surface of the land are covered with only a thin stratum of earth.

They are massed together in a manner totally different from any in

which they could have grown, therefore the argument used in Patagonia

is again applicable here. But in addition to this, there is another

fact deserving attention: namely, that there are similar beds of

similar shells, (identical with living species) about, or rather

below the level of the present ocean, and at some distance from

it.[12]

In crossing the Cordillera of the Andes Mr. Darwin found petrified

trees, embedded in sandstone, six or seven thousand feet above the

level of the sea: and at twelve or thirteen thousand feet above the

sea level he found fossil sea-shells, limestone, sandstone, and a

conglomerate in which were pebbles of the “rock with shells.” Above

the sandstone in which the petrified trees were found, is “a great

bed, apparently about one thousand feet thick, of black augitic

lava; and over this there are at least five grand alternations of

such rocks, and aqueous sedimentary deposits, amounting in thickness

to several thousand feet.”[13] These wonderful alternations of the

consequences of fire and flood, are, to me, indubitable proofs of

that tremendous catastrophe which alone could have caused them;--of

that awful combination of water and volcanic agency which is shadowed

forth to our minds by the expression “the fountains of the great deep

were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.”

The upheaval of the island of Santa Maria has been quoted by

geologists, from my statement; and it will be interesting to learn

whether that island has remained at its new elevation, or whether,

like the shore at Talcahuano,[14] it has sunk down again. If the

coast in that neighbourhood has been gradually rising, it is strange

that old Penco Castle should still stand so low (p. 421).

In Mr. Lyell’s Elements of Geology,[15] he mentions Mr. Darwin having

found, near Callao, “at the altitude of eighty-five feet above the

sea, pieces of cotton thread, plaited rush, and the head of a stalk

of Indian corn, all of which had evidently been imbedded with the

shells” (marine). “At the same height on the neighbouring mainland,

he found other signs corroborating the opinion that the ancient bed

of the sea had there also been uplifted eighty-five feet, since the

region was first peopled by the Peruvian race.” The neighbourhood of

Lima has suffered from immense waves caused by earthquakes, and the

relics found among the shells may have been scattered by one of those

waves. The bed of shells may have been disturbed by the earthquake

and its consequences, the ground may have been rent, and afterwards

closed again, or the opening may have been filled up by loose earth

and anything lying on it, as has taken place at Concepcion. That the

country near Callao, or Lima, has not been upheaved, to any sensible

amount, since the last great earthquake, which was accompanied by

a wave that swept over and destroyed Callao, is evident from the

present position of a pillar erected soon after that event to mark

the place to which the waves advanced inland.[16] This pillar now

stands so low, that waves, such as those which ruined Talcahuano,

would inevitably reach its base; again destroying the whole of

Callao, still situated on a flat, very few feet above the sea, near

where old Callao stood.

I have now mentioned the principal facts connected with the Beagle’s

voyage, which I am desirous of noticing with reference to the Deluge.

Want of space prevents my adding others: I have hardly room left to

lay before my young readers some general considerations, arising

partly out of these facts, which I hope may interest--perhaps be

useful to them.

When one thinks of the Deluge, questions arise, such as “where did

the water come from to make the flood; and where did it go to after

the many months it is said to have covered the earth?” To the first

the simplest answer is “from the place whence the earth and its

oceans came:”--the whole being greater than its part, it may be

inferred that the source which supplied the whole could easily supply

an inferior part:--and, to the second question,--“part turned into

earth, by combination with metallic bases; part absorbed by, and now

held in the earth; and part evaporated.”[17] We know nothing of the

state of the earth, or atmosphere surrounding it, before the Flood;

therefore it is idle and unphilosophical to reason on it, without a

fact to rely on. We do not know whether it moved in the same orbit;

or turned on its axis in a precisely similar manner;--whether it had

then huge masses of ice near the poles;--or whether the moon was

nearer to it, or farther off. Believers in the Bible know, however,

that the life of man was very much longer than it now is, a singular

fact, which seems to indicate some difference in atmosphere, or

food, or in some other physical influence. It is not so probable

that the constitution of man was very different (because we see that

human peculiarities are transmitted from father to son), as it is to

suppose that there was a difference in the region where he existed.

It is easy to settle such speculations by the reflection--“It was

the will of Him who is Almighty;” but as in most cases we see that

secondary causes are employed to work out His will, we may imagine

that the extraordinary prolongation of man’s existence was effected

by such means.

Connected with these questions respecting the additional quantity of

water is the reflection that the amount must have been very great.

This may be placed in another light. Sir John Herschel says,[18] “On

a globe of sixteen inches in diameter such a mountain (five miles

high) would be represented by a protuberance of no more than one

hundredth part of an inch, which is about the thickness of ordinary

drawing paper. Now as there is no entire continent, or even any very

extensive tract of land, known, whose general elevation above the sea

is any thing like half this quantity, it follows, that if we would

construct a correct model of our earth, with its seas, continents,

and mountains, on a globe sixteen inches in diameter, the whole of

the land, with the exception of a few prominent points and ridges,

must be comprised on it within the thickness of thin writing paper;

and the highest hills would be represented by the smallest visible

grains of sand.”--Such being the case, a coat of varnish would

represent the diluvial addition of water; and how small an addition

to the mass does it appear!

Let us now refer briefly to the recorded account of the Flood.

Without recapitulating dates and events, I will at once advert to the

ark:--an immense vessel,[19] constructed of very durable wood,[20]

and well stored with vegetable provision for all that it contained.

Some cavillers have objected to the heterogeneous mixture of animals

embarked; on the ground that they could not have been assembled;

and would have destroyed one another. We may reply: He who made,

could surely manage. But, without direct miraculous interposition

(though we should never forget that man is a miracle, that this world

is a miracle, that the universe is a miracle), imagine the effect

that would be produced on the animal creation by the approach of

such a war of elements. Do we not now find animals terrified by an

earthquake--birds shunning the scene of violence,--dogs running out

of a town,[21] and rats forsaking a sinking ship? What overcoming

terror would possess the animated beings on an island, if it were

found to be rapidly sinking while worse than tropical torrents,

aggregated water-spouts, thunder and lightning, earthquakes and

volcanic eruptions united to dismay, if not to paralyse, the stoutest

human heart: yet such probably would be but a faint similitude of

the real deluge. Those who have themselves witnessed the war of

elements, in some regions of our globe, are perhaps more able to

conceive an idea, however inadequate, of such a time, than persons

who have scarcely travelled beyond Europe, or made more than ordinary

sea voyages. Happily for man, hurricanes or typhoons occur but

rarely: earthquakes, on a great scale; their overwhelming waves;

and devastating eruptions of volcanoes, still less often. That the

approach of a general calamity would have affected animals, what we

now see leads us to infer, and that many would have fled to the ark,

is only in accordance with the wonderful instinct they are gifted

with for self-preservation. Proud man would, in all probability,

have despised the huge construction of Noah, and laughed to scorn

the idea that the mountains could be covered, even when he saw the

waters rising. Thither, in his moral blindness, he would have fled,

with numbers of animals that were excluded from the ark, or did not

go to it; for we do not see all animals, even of one kind, equally

instinctive. As the creatures approached the ark, might it not have

been easy to admit some, perhaps the young and the small, while the

old and the large were excluded?[22] As we do not know what was the

connection or partition of land, before the deluge; how the creatures

were distributed; or, what was the difference of climate between one

region and another; we cannot say that any particular kind could not

have been near the ark because of crossing the sea, or having far to

travel.

There is abundant proof that animals have changed their habits,

shape, coat, colour, or size, in consequence of migration, or

transportation to different climates; therefore we cannot tell, from

what is now seen, what alterations have taken place since their

second dispersion.

Many able men[23] have pointed out how water penetrating to

metallic bases, may cause volcanic eruptions; how matter thrown

up, and materials torn or washed off the earth may have combined,

mechanically as well as chemically; how gases may have assisted

the transformations: how creatures may have been instantaneously

overwhelmed, or gradually entombed; how lime may have been one among

many powerful agents; how seeds, and spawn, and the germs of insects

may have been preserved; and why, among such multitudes of fossil

remains as we now find, only in a few places are there remains of man

incontrovertibly fossil.[24]

Still there are some points but lightly touched, or unnoticed, by

any person whose works bearing particularly on this subject I have

yet seen. One is the rapidity with which certain substances combine

under water, and form stone; such, for instance,[25] as those used

in Roman cement:--another is the possibility of fragile substances,

such as shells, small creatures, leaves, corallines, branches,

&c., being enveloped in a muddy matrix, while floating at various

depths, according to their specific gravities; and the precipitation

(chemically speaking) or consolidation, or simple deposition of such

cohering masses.[26]

The similarity of coal to asphalte inclines one to suspect an

identity of origin; and that coal, in a fluid state, enveloped

quantities of vegetable matter--was for some time agitated by the

continual tides and tidal currents of the diluvial ocean, and

afterwards hardened by cooling, by pressure, or by chemical change;

if not by all three. We find the impressions of leaves, stems, and

branches--and even large woody trunks embedded in coal: but that the

matrix, in which the leaves were enveloped and subjected to pressure,

was not triturated vegetable matter is probable, because the casts of

delicate vegetable substances found in it show few, if any, signs of

friction or maceration. The impressions are as beautifully perfect as

those of shells in fossils where the shell itself has disappeared.

Might we not as well say that limestone was formed out of decomposed

or pulverised shells, as assert that coal was formed out of the

luxuriant herbage, the ferns and the palms, of a former state of the

world?

Asphalte is at first buoyant; that trees and other vegetable

productions are so I need not remark; but coal sinks in water,

and asphalte may be altered chemically so as to sink like coal.

Experiments on the asphalte of the famous lake at Trinidad have

proved that there is so very close an analogy between that substance

and coal, that a gas, exactly resembling coal gas, and burning

equally well; a bituminous oil; a substance like coal-tar; and a

residuum, similar to coke; result from its distillation.

Electricity may have been a powerful agent in crystallization; in

the rapid deposition of strata;[27] in the formation of mineral

veins;[28] in earthquakes and volcanoes; in the formation or

decomposition of water; and in other ways of which we are yet, and

perhaps ever shall be, totally ignorant.

Successive strata may have been rapidly deposited by tidal

oscillations and currents, aiding chemical or mechanical combinations.

The depth to which bodies would sink in an ocean several miles deep

has not been proved, and there is reason to think that it is much

less than people generally imagine. An eminent man has said that

a knowledge of “the depression of the bed of the ocean below the

surface, over all its extent, is attainable (with whatever difficulty

and however slowly) by direct sounding;”[29] and, in consequence of

a conversation on this subject with him in 1836, he wrote to me,

suggesting a mode which might be tried. I consulted with a friend

as to the possibility of success, and his letter,[30] taken in

connection with the facts related by Scoresby;[31] with what has

been found by those who have sounded to great depths; and with my

own practical experience in sounding--has induced me to think that

man never will reach the lowest depths of the deepest oceans by any

method his ingenuity may contrive;--because the water increases in

density with the depth, in a ratio perhaps more than arithmetical.

Every seaman knows that in sounding at great depths very heavy leads

must be used with ordinary lines, or very thin lines with ordinary

leads; the object being the same--that of overcoming the augmenting

buoyancy of the line by a weight unusually heavy. But line, such

as is used for sounding, is not buoyant at the surface of the sea;

a coil of it thrown overboard sinks directly. Then what is it that

causes any weight attached to a sounding-line to sink slower and

more slowly, after the first few hundred fathoms, the deeper it

penetrates; if not the increased resistance to sinking, found by the

weight and line? “Friction, caused by passing through the water,”

I may be told. Can that friction be compared with the augmented

tendency to sink that would be given by the continually increasing

weight of line, if the water did not increase in density?

The pressure of the column of water over any weight, after it has

been sunk some hundred fathoms, is shown by the time and exertion

required to haul it up again. The operation of sounding in very

deep water, with any considerable weight, occupies several hours,

and a great number of men. That water is elastic has been proved

by Canton’s experiments as well as others: but there are familiar

illustrations of this fact visible in ricochet shot, in ‘ducks

and drakes,’ in the splashing of water, and in the rebounding of

rain-drops from water. Being elastic, and the lower strata being

under enormous pressure, it follows that those strata of water must

be more dense than the body above them. No one doubts that the lower

regions of the atmosphere are denser than the higher; yet air is but

a rarer and much more elastic fluid than water. That which takes

place in air, to a great extent, may be expected to occur in a very

diminished degree with water. If it were not so, why should stones be

blown up, casks violently burst, or rocks suddenly torn asunder by

the application of the principle usually described as the hydrostatic

paradox? If the water were not highly compressed before the explosion

takes place, would there not be a gradual yielding, a tearing asunder

by degrees, instead of a sudden and violent bursting?

The object of this digression is to show that although bodies which

are not buoyant may sink to a considerable depth, it does not

follow that they must sink to the bottom. Each separate thing may

sink a certain distance, in proportion to its specific gravity, and

there remain. The greatest depths ever reached by heavy weights,

attached to lines, do not exceed a mile and a-half; a small distance,

probably, compared with the depth of the diluvial flood.

Although metals, stone, rock, or coal may have sunk deeply in the

waters, other substances, such as earth, mud, bones, animal and human

remains, &c., may have been held at various depths until decomposed

by water; or combined and consolidated by volcanic gases, or electric

currents. In this manner the preservation of delicate corallines,

shells, skeletons of animals, &c., may be accounted for. Suspended

in water, surrounded by earth in a dissolved state, combined by

chemical agency, deposited on land, and consolidated by pressure,

by volcanic or by latent heat, they may have become fossils. Thick

skinned animals may have floated longest, because their hides would

have buoyed them up for a greater length of time,[32] hence their

remains should be found near, or upon the surface of the ground, in

some cases water-worn, in others uninjured, according as they had

been strewed among shingle, or deposited in a yielding mass. That

bones were not rolled about much among the stones in which they are

found,[33] is evident from the fact that bones, if so rolled among

them, would soon be ground to powder. It is clear that, however much

the bones may have been water-worn before deposition on land, both

they, and the adjacent shingle, must have been deposited there nearly

about the same time.

Tripoli stone, and other substances composed chiefly, if not

entirely, of microscopic insects, may have been formed by the

accumulation and cohesion of myriads of such minute creatures,

swept together off the land, like swarms of locusts, aggregated by

the rolling of the waves, agglutinated, deposited on the land, and

afterwards heavily compressed. Or they may have been insects bred

in water; such as those which Mr. Darwin calculated to amount to

“one hundred thousand in a square inch of surface;” while the sea

was streaked with them for a great distance.[34] Microscopic objects

such as these may have been killed by some gas rising from a volcano

beneath; then drawn together by mutual attraction, rolled over and

over, and landed among other recent compositions. In what other way

could such a mass of these animalcules be heaped together?

There are also effects of existing causes which authors have only

mentioned by name, in reference to the Deluge, without explaining

that the effects alluded to would have been enormously increased

at that time;--I mean the tides.--In the Appendix to this volume

is a short statement of the manner in which tides may act--upon

the principles of the ocean oscillating in its bed; and of tides

being caused, partly by the water being elevated by the moon and

sun, partly by a westward momentum given to it by their attraction,

and partly by the oscillation caused by the return of the fluid

after being elevated. If this globe were covered with water to the

height of a few miles above the present level of the ocean, three

more particular effects would take place: an enormous pressure upon

the previously existing ocean, and on all low land; a diminished

gravity in the uppermost waters, resulting from their removal

from the earth’s centre; and immense tides, in consequence of the

increased depth of the mass, the diminished weight of the upper

fluid, and the augmentation of the moon’s attraction. As the waters

increased on the earth, the tides would also increase, and vast

waves would rush against the sides of the mountains, stripping off

all lighter covering, and blowing up,[35] or tearing down, enormous

masses of rock. Similar effects would take place as the diluvial

ocean decreased, until it became bounded by its proper limits. Such

oscillations I conceive to be alluded to by the words “going and

returning,”[36] and by the expression, “they go up by the mountains;

they go down by the valleys;”[37] which exactly describes the rushing

of enormous waves against high land. When a wave strikes against a

rock, it dashes up every projection that opposes it; but--its impetus

at an end--down the water runs again through cavities and hollows:

such, on a grand scale, would be the effect of a diluvial wave urged

against a mountain side.

In such a war of waters, earth, and fire; a buoyant, closed-in

vessel--without masts, rudder, or external ‘hamper’ to hold wind, or

catch a sea--might have floated uninjured; and the fewer openings,

of any description, in her cover, or sides, the better for her

security. Seeing nothing of the conflict around might have diminished

the excessive terror which must have been felt by those that were

within, except the confiding Chief. We do not find that the largest

or highest ‘swell’ injures a good ‘sea-boat,’ when in deep water,

and far from land: the foaming ‘breakers’ alone destroy. But, after

all, such conjectures as these are vain, we cannot now know how far

miraculous interposition extended--how far secondary causes were

employed.

The landing of the ark on a mountain of middle height appears

remarkable; because the climate of the highest, on which we might

naturally suppose the ark rested, did we not know to the contrary,

might have been insupportable during the time that Noah waited for

the recess of the waters.[38] Reasoning from existing circumstances,

the temperature of the surface of the ocean would have been nearly

that of the contiguous air: but after the waters had receded, high

mountain tops would have gradually acquired their present frozen

state.

Here the reflection arises--when did icebergs begin to appear? Was

not the climate equable and temperate all over the world for some

time after the Deluge, in consequence of the slow drying and warming

of tropical regions, and gradual formation of ice near the poles?

Such a condition of climate would have favoured the distribution of

animals. Those who oppose the idea that animals migrated to various

quarters of the globe, surely do not reflect that the swallow, the

wild swan, the wild goose, the wild horse, the Norway rat, and

numerous other creatures, now migrate periodically in search of food

or a better climate. Similar instinct may have taught animals to

wander then, till they reached the places suited to them;[39] and

there the same instinct would retain them. Want of proper food, or

climate; or the attacks of enemies,[40] may have destroyed stragglers

who did not migrate; therefore, when we find no kangaroos in Europe,

it is no proof that kangaroos did not once exist there. Elks are now

found in North America--we know they were formerly in Europe--is that

race here now? During the first few hundred years after the flood,

extraordinary changes may have taken place in the geography of the

world, in consequence of the drying and altering of various portions;

also from the effects of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes,

occasioned perhaps by electric action on newly-exposed land, as well

as by other causes. Many places, now islands, may have been united

to a continent for a considerable period after the deluge; much land

may have sunk down, much may have risen up, in various parts of the

world. Such changes are said to be going on even now, though on a

small scale (Lyell, Darwin, &c.); what may they not have been during

the first few centuries after the flood? Volcanic eruptions, such as

those of the Galapagos, Andes, Etna, Auvergne, Indian Islands, &c.,

were then perhaps in such activity as they have never shown since.

What the division in the earth was, in the days of Peleg, does not

distinctly appear: but it could only have been a separation from

the true faith; a partition of territory among men; or some mighty

convulsion, some rending or contraction, as it were, of the earth,

which was so general as to have occasioned a marked and unqualified

record, as of an event well known to all.

Many philosophers think that the world has a central region of

surpassing heat, and that the greater part of the interior of the

globe is in a state of incandescence, if not of fusion. That small

portion which they call the crust of the earth is supposed to be the

only cooled part; and they differ merely as to the degree of fluidity

in the central region. I take it for granted that they have duly

estimated the moon’s tendency to cause tides in a fluid mass, within

her influence:--if there were no crust, of course she would cause

such an effect, but a well hardened case, we must suppose, can resist

any such movement in the central fluid mass. Upon the principle of

the arch, it would be easier to imagine resistance to pressure from

without than from within; but the case or crust of our globe must be

so solid that it neither yields nor vibrates to an internal expansive

force.

This theory, however, is unsupported by any satisfactory evidence.

Men of character and attainments have advocated it, although resting

on conjecture: but when we look back along the roll of history, and

discover so few philosophers who have not greatly erred, although

famed in their day, it is natural to pause, and not acquiesce hastily

in mere human assertion unsubstantiated by proof. Boring the ground,

or examining the temperature of the bottom of a deep mine, affords

no estimate for that of the central regions:--Sir John Herschel

says,[41] that “the deepest mine existing does not penetrate half a

mile below the surface; a scratch or pinhole duly representing it

on the surface of such a globe, (sixteen inches in diameter), would

be imperceptible without a magnifier.” As our globe is about eight

thousand miles in diameter, and external influence may be supposed to

penetrate some distance, we can draw but unsatisfactory conclusions

from experiments at depths not nearly so great even as that to which

the ocean descends, and made chiefly in temperate or cold climates.

Having no pretension to more knowledge than any observant seaman

may acquire in the course of a few years active employment afloat,

it would be as vain as presumptuous in me, were I to offer any

conjecture about the central mass of the earth. Perhaps, at a future

day, when the nature of aerolites; the agency of electricity; and

of electric communication through the superficial, if not through

the interior regions of the globe, are better known, other opinions,

respecting this wonderful world which we inhabit, may be formed by

philosophers.

I have now fulfilled my intention of endeavouring to be useful, in

however small a degree, to young persons of my own profession. If

the few remarks laid before them, in this and the preceding chapter,

at all increase their interest in the subjects spoken of; and tend,

even in the least, to warn them against assenting hastily to new

theories--while they induce a closer examination into the Record of

truth--my object in writing them will be fully attained.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] By which word I mean ‘Knowledge,’ in its most comprehensive

signification.

[2] “A thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is

past, and as a watch in the night.”--Ps. xc. ver. 4.

[3] I may, however, here remark to my young sailor friends, that the

Jews, who perform their worship in Hebrew, and are naturally at least

as much interested in the Old Testament as any people, use and prefer

our authorised English translation.

[4] In classing one order of creatures above or below others, we

may perhaps consider them as they appear to our apprehension, in

comparison with others, but we must beware of thinking them more or

less imperfect. Every creature is perfectly adapted to the condition

and locality for which it is designed, and absolutely perfect

(speaking generally). Some that are intended to live in the dark;

or some that are to exist under pressure; may at first sight appear

to us imperfect; perhaps shapeless, unsightly objects: but, after

examination into their natural history, our hasty remark is succeeded

by expressions of astonishment at such wonderful arrangements of

Providence as are shewn--even in the most shapeless sea slug.

Multitudes of creatures exist now, especially in the sea, quite

as apparently imperfect as those of the so called lowest order of

animated creation, whose impressions are found in solid rocks. There

may also be animals in deep waters that could not exist except under

pressure.

[5] Rhind, Keith, Lyell, &c.

[6] Job. xxxviii. 6, 7.

[7] Much must depend upon the limit attached to the meaning of the

word Heaven in the 1st Chapter of Genesis, and Heavens in the 2nd;

viewed in connection with verses 1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 14, 15, 17, and 20 of

Chap. i.; 1, 4, of Chap. ii.; verses 5, 7, 10, 13 of 2 Peter iii.;

and very many other passages; not omitting the Lord’s prayer.

[8] We find it ordained in Gen. ii. 3; alluded to by Noah, chap.

viii. ver. 10, 12; and afterwards observed regularly, down to the

present time.

[9] Sharon Turner, Harcourt, &c.

[10] On this subject, the pressure of an ocean, Mr. Lyell remarks,

(Elements of Geology, 1838, pp. 7, 8, 9.) “When sand and mud sink to

the bottom of a deep sea the particles are not pressed down by the

enormous weight of the incumbent ocean; for the water, which becomes

mingled with the sand and mud, resists pressure with a force equal to

that of the column of fluid above.” “Nevertheless if the materials

of a stratum remain in a yielding state, and do not set or solidify,

they will be gradually squeezed down by the weight of other materials

successively heaped upon them, just as soft clay or loose sand on

which a house is built may give way. By such downward pressure

particles of clay, sand, and marl may become packed into a smaller

space, and be made to cohere together permanently.”

“But the action of heat at various depths is probably the most

powerful of all causes in hardening sedimentary strata.”

In reflecting upon these passages it appears to me that Mr. Lyell has

supposed what may not always take place in a deep sea, namely--that

sand and mud sink to the bottom.

Whenever particles of sand and mud are at the bottom, they must be

lower than contiguous particles of water, or they could not be at the

bottom; therefore those particles of sand and mud have water above,

while resting upon some other substance below. Pressure there can

be none, excepting of some earthy particles upon others, while the

specific gravity of the sand and mud exceeds that of the displaced

fluid. But, if the depth of water be increased, and its specific

gravity at the bottom augmented, the sand and mud at the bottom must

rise, if they do not cohere together, and to the surface on which

they lie; in which case the increasing weight and density of water

would tend to compress and make them cohere still more.

The smaller kinds of sea shells are very little heavier than

sea-water. This would prevent their being carried by the action of

the sea to great depths, even if it were possible for them to be so

rolled over rocks, sand, or mud, in which they would stick, or be

buried, before they had been moved many miles from the place where

they grew. These two considerations may help to account for the fact

that seamen do not find impressions of shells, on the ‘arming’ of the

lead, when sounding in very deep water, at a considerable distance

from any shore where they grow. Sea-shells, I need hardly remark,

grow only in comparatively shallow water. The specific gravity of

oyster shell, when dead, is about twice that of sea-water (2092,

1028). Most other shells are much lighter, and but few at all heavier

than the oyster.

Before ending this note I must remark that the horizontal movement

of water near the bottom, though gentle, may tend to press together

and smooth any loose sand, mud that sinks, oazy clay, or fragments

of shells, before many of their particles travel far. Water in rapid

motion is known to hold sand as well as mud in suspension, but

not shells, unless the current is very strong. To such a constant

agitation of the sea, oscillating gently with each tide, we may

perhaps ascribe the comparatively level and smoothened state of the

bed of the ocean, where it has hitherto been sounded. Excepting near

irregular, rocky land, one finds, generally speaking, no ravines, no

vallies, no abrupt transitions in the bottom of the sea. For miles

together there is an almost equal or gradually altering depth of

water: and little similarity can be traced between the contour of the

bed of a sea and the neighbouring dry land, until you are near the

shore, where the sea acts differently, and irregular bottom is as

frequent as it is usually dangerous for shipping.

[11] See remarks on tides in the Appendix.

[12] Pages 421, 2, 3.

[13] Mr. Darwin’s letters to Professor Henslow: printed for the

Cambridge Philosophical Society--1835.

[14] See pages 420-1.

[15] 1838, pp. 295-6.

[16] In 1746.

[17] Electricity may have acted a prominent part in these changes.

[18] Treatise on Astronomy, Cabinet Cyclopædia, page 22.

[19] Sharon Turner, Harcourt, Burnett, &c.

[20] Some of our English ships have lasted more than a century.

[21] Concepcion and Talcahuano, pp. 403, 5.

[22] The small number of enormous animals that have existed since

the Deluge, may be a consequence of this shutting out of all but a

very few. We are not told how many creatures died in the ark; some of

those least useful to man may have gone: but, even if none died, the

few that quitted the ark could hardly have long withstood the rapid

increase of enemies, unless their increase had been proportionably

quick. Whether Job had himself seen, or only heard of, the leviathan

and the behemoth, does not appear; but that those monsters were

the megalosaurus and the iguanadon there seems to be little doubt

(Burnett, p. 67.) Excepting the serpent in Africa, which opposed

the passage of Regulus and a Roman army, I am not aware whether

profane history mentions any well-authenticated instance of such

enormous reptiles; but I cannot look at our representations of

dragons, wyverns, griffins, &c. without thinking that, at least,

tradition must have handed down the memory of some such monsters;

even if a stray one here and there did not actually live in the

earlier historical ages: pterodactyles, plesiosauri, ichthyosauri,

&c. are too like them, in general figure, to admit of this idea being

treated as altogether chimerical. Tradition, no doubt exaggerated by

imagination, may have handed down the fact of such creatures having

once existed: indeed the casual finding of a skeleton might confirm

reports, if not originate them.

[23] Davy, Sharon Turner, Fairholme, Burnett, Granville Penn, Sumner,

Young, Rhind, Lyell, Cockburn, &c.

[24] These fossil remains of man are not only mixed with those of

animals, or fish; but in some cases they are buried at a distance

beneath fossil bones of animals.--See Fairholme on the Mosaic Deluge,

pp. 41-52; Miers’s Chile, vol. i. p. 455, &c.

[25] Lyell, Elements of Geology, 1838, p. 75-6.

[26] The simplest experiments with pulverised, or numerous minute

substances in water, shew that they attract one another mutually, and

then cohere.

[27] Crosse.

[28] Fox.

[29] Treatise on Astronomy, by Sir John Herschel--Cabinet

Cyclopædia--page 154.

[30] “I return Sir John Herschel’s letter on deep-sea sounding.

Anything from him is sure to be interesting and instructive; but

there is a circumstance unnoticed in his communication which might

obstruct the descent of a sounding apparatus to very great depth.

“Mr. Perkins found that at a depth of only 3,000 feet, sea-water

was compressed ¹⁄₂₇th of its bulk at the surface. (Lib^y. of Useful

Knowledge, vol. 1. Art. Hydrostatics.) Hydrostatic pressure has

usually been estimated from depth alone, assuming that the density

of the fluid was uniform; such, however, cannot be the case in an

elastic fluid like water, for at great depths, being in a compressed

state, it is more dense than at the surface.

“In estimating the amount of hydrostatic pressure at great depths,

we should know the vertical height of the column and mean density

of the fluid; and since density increases with depth, by reason of

superincumbent pressure, the water at great depths must be enormously

compressed, and, consequently, in a very dense state. Let us now

inquire how increasing density (from compression alone) might affect

an apparatus sent down by a weight, in order to reach the bottom,

presuming that the solids composing the float and sinker were

incompressible, and retained their form and magnitude during the

operation.

“Let bees’-wax be a float, and cast-iron a sinker, and let each, for

illustration, be one cubic foot in dimensions. Let it be possible

that at some depth water may be compressed into one-fourth of its

bulk at the surface, and still retain the properties of a fluid; let

it also be granted that a solid will swim if specifically lighter

than the contiguous fluid, and sink if heavier than an equal volume

of the fluid. The specific gravity of bees’-wax is stated to be 964;

that of cast iron, 7248; and that of sea-water at the surface, 1028:

hence the buoyancy of wax immersed in sea-water at the surface, may

be called 64, and the tendency of cast-iron to sink, from the same

surface, 6220. Deducting 64, we have 6156 as the whole tendency of

the mass (wax attached to iron) to sink from the surface. Let us now

suppose that the machine has attained a depth where the water is

compressed into a four-fold density, represented by 4112 for a cubic

foot; and we have 3148 for the tendency of the wax to float, but

only 3136 for the tendency of the iron to sink: and the inclination

to ascend rather than descend, might be represented by 12. Thus we

see that an apparatus may not be certain of arriving at the bottom

of an ocean: as in an opposite manner, a balloon may not reach the

highest regions of the atmosphere. Either machine could only attain a

position where there would be no tendency either to descend or ascend.

“WILLIAM WALKER.”

Plymouth, 24th Feb. 1837.

[31] Scoresby’s Arctic Regions.

[32] When ‘blown’ after putrefaction began.

[33] Those, for instance, of Blanco Bay, p. 112.

[34] Darwin’s Letters to Professor Henslow, printed for private

distribution among the members of the Cambridge Philosophical

Society: in 1835.

[35] By the extraordinary power, or principle, called the hydrostatic

paradox.

[36] Gen. viii., v. 5, marginal translation.

[37] Psalm civ. ver. 8.

[38] The Deluge began in the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in

the second month, and seventeenth day of the month (Gen. vii. 11),;

and Noah quitted the ark in the six hundred and first year, in the

second month, and twenty-seventh day of the month (Gen. viii. 14),

making a period of twelve months and ten days. Noah waited in the ark

nearly five months after it grounded on Ararat.

[39] We see abundant evidence that either living creatures are

adapted to particular climates and localities, or that climates and

localities are adapted to particular creatures; which latter, it has

been proved by many authors, are altered by any material change of

the former.

[40] It should be remembered, that man was allowed to eat flesh after

the flood. Gen. ix. ver. 3.

[41] Treatise on Astronomy; Cabinet Cyclopædia, p. 22, Art. 30.

INDEX.

Aborigines of South America

-- names and peculiarities of divisions, 129, 130

-- territories, language, 131, 132

-- numbers, 133

-- Patagonians, size, colour, dress, height, huts, arms, horses,

country, 133-137

-- Fuegians, territories, the ‘Yacana’ tribe, the ‘Tekeenica,’

appearance, dress, arms, huts, canoes, country, 137-141

-- the ‘Alikhoolip,’ finer race, wigwams, country, 140, 141

-- ‘Pecheray’ tribe, 141

-- ‘Huemul’ tribe, partaking both of Patagonian and Fuegian

habits, dogs, ‘zapallos,’ 141, 142

-- ‘Chonos’ tribe, 142, 143

-- further details of Patagonians, 144-174

-- of Fuegians, 175-188

-- Chonos Indians, 189-197

-- at Chilóe, 380

-- Huilli-che, 380-384

-- near Valdivia, 398-401.

Abrolhos, 63

-- Massey’s lead, 64

-- anchorage, height, birds, turtle, fish, remarks on squalls

near, 65, 66, 78, 506.

Aconcagua, height, 425, 481.

Adventure, schooner, purchased, 274

-- story, 275

-- at Maldonado, 283-292

-- at Port Desire, 316

-- plans, 322

-- at Port Louis, 331, 332

-- survey, at Port Famine, 358

-- in Cockburn Channel, 359

-- enters Pacific with Beagle, at Chilóe, 360

-- Valparaiso, 361

-- sold, 361, 362.

Aigle Rock, supposed, vainly sought for, 357.

Alau island, old native there, 387.

Alerse forests, 391.

Alligator, at Feejee Islands, 562.

Andes, Cordillera of the, 349, 351, 352

-- drainage, 353, 354

-- view of, height, 481

-- fossils, 667.

Andres San, Bay, 369, 370.

Anegada Bay, Spanish ship wrecked in, 287, 288

-- sounded, survey, 289.

Antonio San, Cape, coast near, 97.

---- San, Port, 311.

Araucanians, chief, hordes, 106

-- notice of, 149

-- horsemanship, 160

-- laws, 164

-- Colipi, son, 431

-- battle, Villagran, 435, 436

-- curious story, Caciques, 439-441

-- country, cattle, cottages, 442

-- ‘ranchos,’ 443

-- dress, features, cloth, ornaments, 463, 464

-- boys, oratory, 478.

Arauco, 437

-- ‘Comandante,’ 438

-- Ercilla, caciques, Colocolo, story, election of supreme

chief, curious trial, Caupolican, Indian attack, 439-442

-- town again seen, 464.

Argentina, grotesque group near, ‘Comandante,’ suspicions, 102, 103

-- ‘fortaleza,’ ‘gauchos,’ inhabitants, advantages, 104, 105

-- alarm caused by Beagle, 112, 113.

Arica, coast near, 482.

Ariel rocks, vain search for, 119.

Armadilloes, four kinds, 107.

Arrival in England, 638.

Aura island, murders, 519.

Ayres, Buenos, 94, 95.

Bahia, or San Salvador, currents before reaching, scenery, present

state, 60

-- slavery, its evils, 61, 62

-- city described, 63

-- survey, shoals, current, ship’s course, 64, 78.

Bahias Dos, Cape, 305.

Bank Yngles in River Plata, 92, 286.

Barometer, 49, 83

-- fall and changes before ‘pampero,’ 86, 91

-- in gale, 226

-- at Falklands, 244, 245

-- anomaly near Valdivia, 396

-- before great earthquake, 411, 412.

Beagle at Falmouth, 2

-- paid off, 7

-- recommissioned 14, 17

-- outfit, 18-22

-- plan of voyage, 24-41

-- detention, 42

-- course, 44, 45

-- at Santa Cruz, 48

-- Cape Verde Islands, 51

-- Fernando de Noronha, 59

-- Bahia, 60

-- passing Cape Frio, 66

-- at Rio de Janeiro, 73-81

-- equipment described, 82

-- in River Plata, 85

-- danger in Pampero in former voyage, 87

-- at Monte Video, 94

-- Port Belgrano, 101-110

-- Blanco Bay, 111

-- under Monte Hermoso, 112

-- at Buenos Ayres, Monte Video, 114

-- San Blas, 116

-- goes towards Tierra del Fuego, weather, 117

-- extraordinary white-coloured space of sea, 118

-- off Santa Inez, 119

-- in Good Success Bay, passes Cape Horn, 122

-- in St. Martin Cove, 124

-- off York-Minster heights in heavy gale, 125

-- loses boat, 126

-- in Goree Road, 127

-- in Scotchwell Bay, under sail during bad night between

Wollaston and Navarin Islands, 223

-- Packsaddle Bay, 224

-- Good Success Bay, 225

-- Berkeley Sound, 227, 268

-- Johnson Cove, 270

-- in gale off River Negro, 281

-- at Monte Video, Maldonado, 282

-- proceedings, 283, 286

-- at San Blas Banks, 286

-- River Negro, Port Belgrano, 288

-- sails with H.M.S. Snake, returns to Monte Video, 292

-- strikes a rock in Port Desire, 317

-- Port San Julian, 318-321

-- passes First Narrow, 322

-- at Woollya, 323

-- Port Louis, 327

-- River Santa Cruz, 336

-- Cape Virgins, 357, 358

-- new route, 358 (note)

-- under sail in Cockburn Channel, 359

-- Valparaiso, 361

-- San Carlos, 363

-- among Chonos Islands, 364-378

-- San Carlos, 378

-- soundings along coast of South Chile, 396

-- Valdivia, 397

-- Talcahuano, 402

-- Valparaiso, 419

-- Concepcion, 421

-- narrow escape, Maule, 424

-- proceedings, 424-426

-- refit in Herradura Cove, 426, 427

-- Valparaiso, 428

-- Callao, 482

-- at Galapagos Islands, 484-505

-- at Low Islands, 506

-- discovers islands, 507, 508

-- Otaheite, or Tahiti, 508-557

-- Navigators, Friendly, and Feejee Islands, 559-562

-- at New Zealand, 563-619

-- ‘Three Kings’ islets, 620

-- Port Jackson, Sydney, 621

-- Hobart Town, 623

-- King George Sound, 624

-- Keeling Island, 628

-- Mauritius, Cape of Good Hope, St. Helena, Ascension, Bahia,

Cape Verde and Azores Islands, arrives in England, 638.

Beagle Channel, 218

-- tide, 219.

Beauchesne Island, 327.

Belgrano Port, 100, 101

-- fossils, animals, fish, 107

-- climate, tides, pumice-stones, 108

-- Beagle there again, 288.

Bellaco Rock examined, tides, refraction, 318, 319.

Berkeley Sound, 227

-- lights on hills, 276

-- re-visited, 327

-- shallow soundings thence to River Santa Cruz, 336.

Birds, flight of, indicates direction of land, 557, 558, 628.

Blanco Bay, shore between it and Cape Corrientes, without

anchorage, tosca, 99, 100.

Blanco Cape, tide-races, 303

-- coast near, salinas, guanacoes, 304.

Blas San, Bay, 116, 117

-- banks, 286, 287

-- Liebre and Paz there, Indians, 296, 297.

Boats, excursion to Woollya, 202-206

-- arrival there, 207

-- on westward exploration, pass Murray Narrow, canoes, Shingle

Point, 215

-- endangered by fall of ice-cliff, 217

-- enter Beagle channel, difficulties, 218

-- return to Woollya, 220

-- in Ponsonby Sound, Button Island, 223

-- yawl swamped, 276

-- up Chupat River, 307

-- excursion up River Santa Cruz, 337-357

-- whale-boat in Chonos Archipelago, 363, 364

-- boat exploration of Chilóe Archipelago by Lieut. Sulivan and

Mr. Usborne, 364, 366, 378

-- northwards by Mr. Stokes, 367

-- proceedings 374, 375

-- boat excursion (in 1829), 393-395

-- expeditions under Lieut. Sulivan, Mr. Chaffers and Mr.

Mellersh at Galapagos, 485, 486, 489-497.

Boroa Indians, light coloured, origin, 402

-- further notices, 465.

Brett Cape, 564, 565.

Brightman Inlet, fish, 295.

Brisbane, Mr. 270

-- account of ruin of Port Louis, 271

-- murdered, 327, 328

-- burial, character, shipwreck, 332-335.

Butterflies, singular flight of, 117.

Button Island, 223.

Bynoe, Mr. Benjamin, 19, 21

-- skill and kindness, 77, 78

-- accompanies Fuegians on shore, 127

-- anecdotes, 180, 181

-- account of Indians near Gulf of Trinidad, 197, 198

-- remarks on Easter Bay, large deserted canoes and wigwams, 199

-- various notices, 200

-- at Woollya, 320

-- River Santa Cruz, 337-356

-- lands on James Island, Galapagos, 497

-- weather during stay, 500.

Calbuco, meaning of word, 377

-- origin of name, 387.

Calbucanos, mode of life, 390

-- alerse planks, astillero, 391

-- loads, land-slips, 392.

Callao, 482.

Camarones Bay, wood, water, grass, Indian tombs, 305.

Carlos, San, 363

-- climate, 386.

Carmen, Del, Nuestra Señora, Patagonians near, 145

-- situation, houses, 298

-- fort, inhabitants, ‘Estancia del Rey,’ settlers, Indians, 299

-- anecdotes, 300

-- customs and manners, trade, coal, 301

-- Paz and Liebre there, 311

-- wild fowl, hunting, Indian attack in 1783, 313, 314.

----, American schooner, hired to go for Challenger’s crew, 468

-- met dismasted, 473

-- sketch of cruise, 474, 476.

Carrasco, Don Eduardo, Hydrographer at Lima, renders material

assistance to Expedition, 484.

Castro, 382

-- climate, 386.

Catharina, Santa, good harbour, inhabitants, 83.

Cattle, wild, hunt, at Falklands, 279-281.

Cavahi Island discovered, 508.

‘Cesares, Los,’ rumours of settlement, 287

-- Spaniards’ visit and description of it, 392, 393.

Chaffers, Mr. 270

-- sails in Adventure, 274

-- at Gorriti, 284

-- examines inlet and river at Port Desire, 316, 317

-- ascends River Santa Cruz, 337

-- examines Hood Island, and other places in Galapagos Islands,

485, 497.

Challenger, H.M.S. at Falklands, 328

-- search for murderers, 329, 331

-- report of loss, 428

-- confirmed, 429

-- Blonde sails to assist, 430

-- party go over land, 431

-- ferry, estate, Don Juan Rivera, 432, 433

-- Colcura, 434

-- Villagran, Chivilingo, 436

-- coal, Carampangue, 437

-- Arauco, 437-442

-- country, Indians, 443

-- Quiapo, 444

-- bad travelling, 445, 446

-- Tucapel, Valdivia, 447, 448

-- Leübu, party reach Challenger’s crew, 449

-- account of wreck and subsequent events, 451-460

-- party’s return, Quiapo, ‘Ulpu,’ cattle, 461

-- river, rancho, 462

-- Araucanians, 463, 464

-- Boroanos, Tubul River, 465

-- journey, 466, 467

-- Blonde, 469

-- goes to relieve Challenger’s crew, 469

-- delays, mistake, 470, 471

-- reach Leübu, 472

-- embarkation, 473

-- Talcahuano, 475

-- H.M.S. Conway receives crew and sails, 479

-- causes of wreck, 480.

Chilóe, inhabitants, 379

-- Indians, religion, 380

-- foreign settlers, kindness, barter, 381

-- fish, coal, towns, discovery, 382

-- population, decrease, mines, 383

-- early notices, name, pirates, Spaniards, 384

-- Indians’ regret of Spanish government, tithes, oppression, 385

-- anecdote, tasks, patriots, climate, 386

-- good sites for docks, tide-streams, 387

-- Chilote voyages, 392

-- deserters, Padre Forastes, expedition, 394

-- ‘vaqueano,’ search, 395

-- meteoric appearances (note), 395

-- earthquake, 416.

Chiut Island, strawberries, 387.

Chonos Indians, 130-142

-- boy on board Adeona, cannibalism, hostilities, 189

-- ‘Niqueaccas,’ quickness, religious ideas, ceremony, 190

-- burial-places, anecdote, ‘cubba,’ 191

-- charm, sagacity, local knowledge, pilotage, 192, 193

-- mode of declaring war, honesty, anecdotes, 195, 196

-- at Chilóe, 380

-- former numbers, 383.

Chonos Archipelago explored, 363-366

-- notices, early voyages, 367-369

-- further remarks, 374-377.

Chupat River, discovered, 306

-- described, Spaniards, cattle hunts, 307

-- entrance, 308, 309, 353.

Clive, Lieut., burial, 335.

Clouds, remarks on, 65, 66, 502

-- over low land, 506, 507, 563.

Cobija, 481.

Cockburn Channel, bad weather, Beagle under sail in, 359.

Colcura, heights of, hamlet, 434, 435.

Coliumo, 417, 424.

Colorado River, wolf seen near, 251, 295, 296

-- communication with Union Bay, 296

-- gale, ‘freshes,’ 302.

Concepcion, earthquake, preceding signs, 402

-- destruction of city, 403, 404

-- situation, anecdotes, 405

-- mutual assistance, 406

-- waves, 413-417

-- elevation and depression of land, 420

-- fossil shells, 421-423

-- coal, 424

-- re-visited, rebuilding, houses, Peruvians, 476, 477

-- country, 479.

Conchali, smuggling, 426.

Constitucion, vessel lent by Don Francisco Aguilar, goes with Mr.

Usborne, 283, 284.

----, another vessel so named, lent by Don Francisco Vascuñan at

Coquimbo, surveys coast, 427

-- at Callao, usefulness, 482

-- bought to survey coast of Peru, 483

-- sails, 484

-- (for proceedings see Sulivan, and Usborne).

Conway, H.M.S., passing through quantities of pumice-stone and

ashes, 108, 109

-- receives crew of H.M.S. Challenger, 479.

Coquimbo, 427-479.

Corcovado, volcano, 376, 394.

Corrientes, Cape, rocks, 99

-- reported shoal, 292.

Cruz, Santa, capital of Teneriffe, appearance, 48.

----, river, explored, 336

-- estuary, banks, ‘steppes,’ cliffs, 337

-- barrenness, animals, climate, 338

-- mud-banks, tides, views, 339

-- water, 340

-- change of scenery, cold, 341

-- tracking, instruments, 342

-- frost, ostriches swimming, 343

-- rapidity of stream, smoke, Indian tracks, 344

-- ‘Indian Pass,’ rapids, windings, quantities of shingle, 345

-- heights, wastes, want of fuel, 346

-- temperature of air and water, earth cliffs, progress, lava

cliffs, 347

-- lava district, ‘Basalt Glen,’ wild scene, 348

-- mirage, driftwood, boat stove, Andes, 349

-- guanacoes, birds of prey, bed of river, 350

-- views, weather, country, 351

-- walking party, direction of river, 352

-- velocity, trees, water, colour and temperature, drainage of

Andes, sources, 353

-- Lake Viedma, or Capar, rivers, floods, 354

-- level of river, bones, 355

-- wild cats, return, mountains, rapid descent, fish, 356.

Currents near Bahia, 60

-- Abrolhos, 64

-- near Cape Frio, 70, 71

-- in Plata, 93, 226

-- from Tierra del Fuego and Staten Land to Falklands, 242, 243

-- near Mocha, 419

-- extraordinary, 480

-- near Galapagos, 484, 486, 488, 496

-- and temperature, 505, 562

-- Bay of Islands, 563

-- on passage from New Zealand to Port Jackson, temperature of

water, 621

-- near North Keeling Island, 638.

Cutfinger Cove, striking scenery, immense canal, 202.

Dangerous Archipelago (see Low Islands).

Darwin, Mr. Charles, volunteers as naturalist, 18, 19

-- fossils near Point Alta, 106

-- pumice-stones, 108

-- accompanies party with Fuegians on shore, 127

-- goes in westward exploration, 215

-- saves boats, 217

-- at Maldonado, 284

-- plans, 286

-- at Argentina, 288

-- River Negro, 312

-- obtains interesting account of Indian attack on Carmen, 314

-- search for fresh water at Port San Julian, 320

-- ascends Santa Cruz, 327

-- goes away at Chilóe with Lieut. Sulivan, 364

-- rejoins Beagle, 366

-- excursions, 379-425

-- lands on James Island, 497-500

-- at Otaheite, 510-512

-- notices of natives, 522, 527, 543, 557

-- at New Zealand, 570

-- arrival in England, 638.

Darwin, Mount, 215

-- height, 216

-- Sound, 217, 218.

Deluge, remarks on facts with reference to, 657-682.

Desertas Islands, 386.

Desire, Port, coast from, to Valdes Creek, examined by Paz and

Liebre, 282

-- Indians’ traces, wells full, 303

-- inlet examined, 316

-- river, rock, 317, 322.

Desolation, Cape, 218.

Diego San, Cape, breakers, 119, 120.

Divide, Point, burning-tree, slate, rock, 219.

Dogs, Patagonian, 151, 167, 174

-- Fuegian dogs trained to catch birds while roosting, 184

-- hunting, 187

-- fine animals, taught to bring in food, birds, hunt fish, 187

-- described, 201

-- at King George Sound, 627

-- at Keeling Islands, fishing, 634.

Douglas, Mr., engaged to collect information, 363

-- survey in boats, 364

-- remarks on Huilli-che superstitions, 388-390

-- on Calbucanos, 390, 391

-- Chilotes, voyages, father’s account of ‘Los Cesares,’ 392,

393.

Earle, Mr. Augustus, engaged as artist, 19

-- obliged to return to England, 20.

‘Eight stones,’ vain search for, 46.

Elena, Santa, Port, 305.

Equator, passages out and home, 3, 4

-- absurd ceremonies in crossing, 57

-- notice of by Kotzebue, 58.

English Bank (see Banco Yngles).

---- ---- (San Carlos), nature of bank, 378.

Estevan, San, or Stephen’s Port, distressed sailors, 370

-- story, 371, 372.

Falklands, bad weather, 226

-- aspect of land, wrecks, 227

-- position, number, asserted claims of various countries, 228,

237

-- Buenos Ayrean ‘comandante’ appointed, subsequent events,

England re-asserts her sovereignty, H.M.S. Tyne and Clio

re-hoist her flag, 238-240

-- shores, violent winds, tides, remarkable currents, 241-243

-- storms, 244

-- seasons, temperature, 245

-- harbours, 246

-- country, 247

-- peat, animals, 248

-- wild cattle, horses, foxes, 249-252

-- changes and transport of animals, 253

-- rabbits, whales, 254

-- fish, 255

-- birds, brushwood, fuel, grass, 256

-- soil, potash, 257

-- increase of animals, 258

-- vegetable productions, trees, 259

-- plants, balsam, 260

-- rushes, improvements, colonizing, 261

-- suggestions, 263

-- cattle, pilotage, 264, 265

-- ports, wool, 266

-- Vernet’s establishment, 266-269

-- events there, 270

-- ruined settlement, 271

-- lights, 276, 277

-- fossil bones, 277, 278

-- wild-cattle hunts, 279-281

-- sad occurrences there, 327-335.

Famine, Port, 321, 322.

Feejee Islands (native name, Navahi), dangerous navigation,

natives, cannibalism, 559

-- white men among them, ‘Charles,’ cautions, treachery, dealing

with savages, 560, 561

-- canoes, trade, alligator, bones, winds, 462.

Fernandez, Juan, effects of great earthquake, Ulloa, volcanic

appearance at the summit of Yungue (note) 418.

Fire, mountain forests on fire, give rise to reports of volcanoes,

203, 204.

First Narrow, tide, 321, 322.

Forastes, Padre, entices men to desert, 393

-- search for them, 394, 395.

Fossils in Port Belgrano, 107

-- in San Salvador Bay, 278

-- near Tilly Road, 304

-- curious, near Concepcion, 421-423

-- in Andes, 667.

Foxes of Falkland Isles, apparent varieties, 250

-- remarks, 251

-- changes produced by food, climate, 252

-- transport, 253, 254

-- fox called ‘culpen’ in Araucania (note) 450.

Friendly, or Tonga Islands, missionaries, opposition, Mariner’s

account, 559.

Frio, Cape, 67, 70

-- currents, 71, 72.

Fuegians, account of those brought home, 1

-- cannibalism, fate of old women, feelings on seeing strange

sights, 2

-- ages, reasons for being brought to England, 4, 5, 6

-- vaccinated, 7

-- ‘Boat-Memory,’ catches small-pox, 8

-- death, 9

-- character, plan for educating others, 10

-- journey to London, anecdote, Walthamstow, 11

-- kind treatment, improvement, at St. James’s, 12, 13

-- private arrangements for their return, changed by Beagle’s

re-commission, 13, 14

-- at Plymouth, 15

-- presents, 16

-- ‘Fuegia,’ at Botafogo Bay with English family, 80

-- natives seen near Cape Peñas, remarks of those on board,

pleasure at being near home, 119

-- meeting with large and fine men, 120

-- remarks, paint, laughed at by ‘York,’ and ‘Jemmy,’ anecdotes,

121

-- ‘York-Minster’s’ duplicity; he, Jemmy, and Fuegia leave

Beagle for the shore, 127, 128

-- meet natives, remarks, 203

-- friends, Jemmy learns his father’s death, conduct, language,

204

-- ‘York’s’ jealousy of Fuegia, Jemmy’s stories, 205

-- Oens (or Coin) men, 205, 206

-- natives, scenery, 207

-- arrival at Woollya, precautions, natives come in numbers, 208

-- meeting between Jemmy and his family, 209

-- his mortification, 210

-- ‘doctor,’ 211

-- Jemmy, York, and Fuegia established in wigwams, anecdotes,

213, 214

-- change on boat’s return, Jemmy plundered, 221

-- sorrowful remarks on his savage brethren, boats leave them,

222

-- re-visit them, better hopes, another interview with, 323

-- Jemmy and family, 324

-- York’s treachery, Jemmy’s story, 325

-- improvement, gratitude, parting, 326, 327.

Fuegian tribes, general sketch of, 130, 137-142

-- features, 175

-- hair, diversity of appearance, form, colour, 176

-- paint, caution, 177

-- food, ‘doctor,’ wizard, 178

-- elders, superstitious ideas, 179-181

-- death, burial, 181

-- marriage, relationship, 182

-- cannibalism, war, 183

-- cooking, weapons, bird-catching, 184

-- food, drink, occupations, 185

-- swimming, women diving, illness, children, training,

guanaco-hunting, 186

-- anecdotes, fire, pyrites, 187

-- language, 188

-- at Woollya, 207-210

-- astonishment at fire-arms, 211, 212

-- large wigwam, 215

-- numerous at Woollya on boat’s return, 220

-- troublesome conduct to Matthews and his companions, 221

-- presents on leaving them, 222

-- ‘Yapoos,’ 323

-- Oens-men, 325, 326

-- language, 358.

Funchal Roads, 46.

Galapagos, appearance, Chatham Island, haziness, surf, craters,

current, 485

-- ripplings, shores, iguanas, 486

-- lava, terrapin, trees, Stephens Bay, rocks, birds, fish, 487

-- tortoises, current, water, 488

-- weather, turtle, shells, mangroves, 489

-- Charles Island, volcanoes, heights, settlement, 490, 491

-- animals, vegetables, craters, Albemarle Island, formation,

492, 493

-- wild scene, lava cliffs, 494

-- Tagus Cove, anchor in crater, 495

-- extraordinary appearance, 496

-- James’ Island, settlers, oil, 497

-- winds, weather, Chatham Island, anchorage, soil, 498

-- MacGowen shoal, Charles Island, salt, 499

-- salt in crater, woods, Albemarle Island and other islets,

500, 501

-- rains, moisture, 502

-- birds’ beaks, terrapin, 503, 504

-- migration, 505.

Gales, 3, 51, 83, 91, 98, 112, 123, 124, 125, 126, 225, 226, 243,

244, 281, 289, 297, 302, 303, 306, 563

-- at Keelings, 637.

Gallegos River, 353.

‘Gauchos,’ 276

-- dress, appearance, 278

-- at Port Louis, murder, settlers, 328-331.

George, St., Bay, tide, 304.

George, King, Sound, aspect of country, 624

-- settlement, local attraction, tides, 625

-- natives, ‘corobbery,’ 626

-- feast-day, dog, aborigines, 627

-- burial, fish, 628.

Glaciers, 215

-- tints, icebergs, fall of ice cliff, 216

-- effect on sea, danger of boats, beauty of scenery, 217.

Goree Road, 127.

Gorriti, ship refitting, 284

-- absurd reports in consequence, 292, 293.

Green Island, water, animals, 295.

Gregory Bay, natives near, 168-173.

Guaianeco Islands, wild potato, 200.

Guanacoes, very large near Good Success Bay, 122

-- Fuegians’ chase of, 186, 187

-- weight, 305

-- near New Bay, 306

-- near Santa Cruz, 338

-- numbers, 349

-- size, 350, 355.

Hamond, Mr. Robert N., joins Beagle, 115, 120, 127

-- in Beagle Channel, 215

-- returns to England, 284.

Harris, Mr. W. Snow, lightning conductors of his invention, 18.

Harris, Mr., pilots Beagle, 101

-- at Argentina, 102

-- schooners hired from him, goes as pilot in one, 110, 111

-- excellent conduct, 288

-- anecdote of, 311.

Hellyer, Mr., drowned, 272

-- burial, 273.

Herradura Cove, near Coquimbo.

Hobart Town, or Hobarton, 624.

Hog Island, 296.

Honden Island, 506.

Hope Harbour, Transport schooner wrecked there, 273.

Horcon Bay, 425.

Huafo, position, cove near, 365, 366

-- sheep, Indians, 377, 378.

Huampelen, Mount, or Huamblin, 366.

Huaytecas Islands, oysters, 375

-- volcanoes seen from them, Indian names, meanings, 376, 377.

Huemul, 144 (note).

Huilli-che, 379

-- religion, 380, 381

-- migration, 384, 388

-- superstitions, witchcraft, ‘bruxos,’ 388-390

-- ‘Juncos’ and ‘Rancos,’ tribes near Valdivia, features, dress,

feelings, curious customs, traditions, Deluge, ‘Chem,’

‘Minga,’ 400, 401.

Icebergs, notices of, probably taken for rocks in some instances,

118

-- ice-cliffs, 216, 217.

Iguanas, at Galapagos, 486

-- orange-coloured, 495, 496.

Inchemo Island, goats, 372.

Inez, Santa, Cape, 119.

Instructions, 22-42.

Ipun Island (Chonos), 367, 375.

Islands of, Bay, easy of access, Whale rock, 564, 565.

Islay, white powder, 482.

Jackson, Port, 621.

Jago, St., Island of, current near north point, 51.

Jaguars, 97.

Janeiro, Rio de, 72, 73

-- observations, 74

-- difference in meridian distances, 75

-- Beagle’s measurement confirmed, 78, 80, 82, 83.

Jason Islands, tide-races near, 242.

Javali, or Hog Island, 296.

Johnson, Mr. C. R., joins Beagle, 20

-- in Adventure at Falklands, 281.

Johnson Cove, French crew there, 268-275.

José, San, Port, cattle hunts, 307

-- massacre of Spaniards, 308

-- tides, desolation, wreck, 311

-- remarkable ripplings near, 312.

Julian, San, Port, bar, 319

-- search for water, 320

-- settlement, former scenes there, whaler, tides, 321

-- swell, 322.

Keeling Islands, birds’ flight, appearance of islets, Port Refuge,

tide-guage, 629

-- soundings, reefs, discovery, 630, 631

-- inhabitants, slavery, trade, 632

-- curious crab, turtle chase, fish eating coral, 633

-- fishing-dog, coral formations, 634

-- animals, water, natives, christenings, observations, 635, 636

-- storms, 637.

Kelp, 243

-- indicates rocks, remarks, cautions, 246, 247.

King, Capt. P. P., 1

-- promotion, 8

-- letter, 23

-- ice, 216

-- notices of Chilóe, 381, 382

-- alerse, 390, 391, 393.

King, Mr. P. G., 12, 20, 21

-- in Liebre, 294

-- in Constitucion, 427

-- Elizabeth Bay, 494.

‘Kings, Three,’ islets, tide-races, 620, 621.

Kororareka Harbour, 565

-- village, 566

-- huts, 577

-- cooking, church, 578

-- estuary, 581.

Krusenstern, Admiral, chart of Low Islands, 506.

Leübu River, 446

-- encampment, 449, 456-460

-- error, 470, 471

-- Bay, 473.

Liebre, schooner, hired to assist survey, reasons, 110, 111

-- in River Negro, 286

-- discharged, 288

-- sketch of proceedings, 295-314.

Lightning, conductors, 18

-- effects on Thetis, St. Elmo’s fire, 80, 81

-- Heron corvette struck, 81

-- sets fire to bushes, 304

-- curious notices, 539 (note).

Lights on hills, singular, 276

-- conjectures as to cause, 277.

Lima, 484

-- inhabitants, 642.

Lizard, at New Zealand, 619, 620.

Look-out, Cape, 319.

Louis, Port, 261

-- settlement, 266, 267

-- destroyed, 268, 271

-- murders, occurrences, 327, 328

-- search for murderers, 329, 330

-- new settlement begun, Rivero taken, 331.

Low Islands, Dangerous Archipelago, or Paamuto Islands, 506, 507

-- missionary labour, natives, Chain Islanders, 518.

Low, Mr., 2, 129, 145

-- anecdote, 168

-- opinions, notices of Patagonian natives, boy on board, 169-174

-- takes Chonos boy on board Adeona, details of Chonos tribe,

189-197

-- potatoes, anecdote, 200

-- at Falkland Islands, 273, 274

-- cattle-shooting, 281

-- narrow escape, 328

-- engaged as pilot, 331

-- examines Chonos Archipelago, 363, 364, 367.

Low, Port, 374

-- fresh provisions, piraguas, wild potato, 375

-- view, Meli-moyu Mountain, 376.

Macacu River, fever, malaria, causes, 76, 77.

Madeira, 46.

Magdalen Channel, fine scenery, 359.

Magellan, Le, wrecked, 269

-- crew’s transport, 373

-- in Beagle, 281.

Malaspina Cove, lightning, 304.

Malays at Keeling Islands, 632, 637.

Maldonado, pampero, 88

-- village, 93, 282, 284, 285

-- absurd reports, 293.

Man, origin and migration of, 639-657.

Mar-chiquito, salt lagoon, no opening to the sea, 97

-- country near, hills, their usual direction, as well as that

of rivers and inlets between Plata and Cape Horn, 98

-- immense herd of cattle, 99.

Maria, a Patagonian woman, 145, 146

-- met again, 322.

Maria, Santa, Island of, upheaval, 412, 413

-- beds of dead shell-fish, 414

-- depression of land, 420

-- appearance, 436.

Martin, St., cove, cliffs, weather, 124.

Martha, Santa, gales, 83

-- shores, 84.

Massey’s lead, 55, 64.

Matavai Bay (see Otaheite).

Matthews, Richard, goes as missionary to Tierra del Fuego, 15, 16

-- first meets savages, 122

-- accompanies Fuegians from Beagle, 127

-- anecdote, 179

-- steadiness, 205

-- arrival at Woollȳa, 207-210

-- established and left in wigwam, 212, 213

-- anxiety for, safety, 220

-- story, danger, 221

-- re-embarks, 223

-- decides to remain with his brother at New Zealand, 605.

Maule River, effects of great earthquake there, 417

-- surf, village, bar, 424

-- advantages, 425.

May Harbour, cypress trees, otter, 375.

Medanos Point, banks near, 97.

Melo Port, 298.

Mellersh, Mr., 19

-- examines Hood Island, 486

-- Elizabeth Bay, 494-496.

Mendoza, river near, 286, 287.

Missionaries (Spanish), 373

-- (Otaheitan) efforts of in Low Islands, 518

-- (English) at Otaheite, 510

-- anecdotes, 514-517, 523, 524, 542, 544, 545

-- influence, 550

-- on Navigators and Friendly Islands, 559

-- at New Zealand, 567-575

-- difficulties of first mission there, 579

-- influence, 583-588

-- distinctions, 601, 602

-- proper spirit, 604, 605

-- obstacles at New Zealand, 611, 612

-- effects of exertions, 613, 614

-- embarrassments, 615

-- purchase of lands, 616-618.

Mocha Island, survey, earthquake, 402

-- waves, 414

-- incidents, 415

-- survey, rocks, Indians, 419.

Montes Tres, Cape, 369.

Murray, Mr. Matthew, 4, 5, 11.

Murray Narrow, passed by boats, 215-220.

Musters, Mr. Charles, 20

-- death of, 76.

Narborough Island, 365, 366

-- excellent port, strawberries, produce, 374

-- structure, tides, 375.

Navigators Islands, murders, success of missionaries, 559.

Negro River, 286, 287, 288

-- ‘freshes,’ banks, produce, floods, plough, 298

-- survey, bar, 302, 303

-- massacre of Spaniards, 308

-- Paz and Liebre detained there, 311

-- floods, mouth and bar examined, 312

-- wild fowl, 313.

New Bay, 305

-- bad weather, soil, 306

-- settlement, 308, 309.

Noir Island, wigwams, 365.

Noronha, de Fernando, 58

-- surf, citadel, population, scenery, precautions, 59.

Nott, Mr., senior missionary at Otaheite, translation of Bible, 517.

Obstruction Sound, 198

-- large canoes and wigwams deserted, swan-traps, deer, 199.

Oens, or Coin men, inroads, 205, 206

-- at Woollȳa, 325, 326.

Organ Mountains, 80, 82.

Osorno, Mount, in eruption, 378

-- height, form, 379.

Ostriches near river Santa Cruz, 338

-- swimming, 343.

Otaheite, or Tahiti, view, 508

-- scenery, Matavai Bay, canoes, natives, 509

-- traffic, dress, Point Venus, 510

-- chiefs, native houses, 511, 512

-- curiosity, fair, theft, singing, 513

-- taboo-marks, tombs, ‘aito,’ sugar-mill, 514

-- Papiete, cottages, 515

-- natives, shells, Papawa, 516

-- Otaheitan Bible, weather, 517

-- old ‘Ua,’ diseases, 520, 521

-- industry, anecdotes, curious relics, 522

-- church, congregations, 523

-- recreations, children, ‘Hitote,’ 524

-- Queen Pomare, audience, 524, 525

-- customs, 527

-- meeting with queen and chiefs, 527-542

-- pilotage among coral reefs, 542

-- school-house, service, ‘Hitote,’ extempore prayer, 543

-- songs, school, natives teaching each other, children, 545

-- discussion, intelligence of natives, communication of news,

‘Mare’s’ letter, 546

-- ‘Paofai’s’ letter, children of early missionaries, classes of

natives, 547

-- proportions, attire, moral conduct, 548, 549

-- prohibition of spirits, harsh usage of infirm, anecdotes, 551

-- domestic manners, 552

-- snuff, provisions, seizure of the Newton, 554

-- Pearl fishing, steering, 555

-- Queen’s letter, natives pay her debts, taking leave, 557.

Oven, the, singular spot described, water, 304.

Paamutos (see Low Islands).

Packsaddle Bay, 224.

Paihia, missionary settlement in New Zealand, 566.

Pampas, 85

-- absence of trees, 93

-- droughts, herds of cattle, fertility, 94

-- on eastern coast, 97.

Pampero, in River Plata, 85-89.

Papiete (see Otaheite).

Papudo, 426.

Patagonians, general sketch of 129-137

-- details, physiognomy, friendliness, size, wanderings, 145

-- clothing, 146

-- arms, ornaments, 147-149

-- food, hunting, dogs, 150, 151

-- huts, sleeping-places, 152

-- marriages, domestic state, 153

-- children, cradles, 154

-- health, sickness, 155

-- funeral ceremonies, 156-160

-- warfare, horsemanship, racing, cards, 160

-- religious ideas, 161

-- worship, 162

-- witchcraft, 163

-- sacred tree, government, caciques, 164-166

-- warfare, horses, 166, 167

-- moral restraints, 167

-- anecdotes, traffic, 168

-- San Leon, partiality for white men, subdivisions, 169

-- boy-chief, ‘Capitan Chups,’ behaviour, 170

-- ‘Chico,’ Fuegians, trade with them in slaves, 171

-- counting, time, language, respect to age, cookery, 172

-- women, gratitude of boy, 173

-- emigrations, 174

-- in Gregory Bay, 322.

Patch Cove, 372, 373.

Paul, St., Rocks, or Peñado de San Pedro, examined, multitudes of

birds, sharks, 56

-- current, 57.

Paz, schooner, reasons for hiring to extend survey, 109, 110

-- refit, 111, 112

-- off River Negro, 286

-- discharged, 288

-- sketch of proceedings, 295-314.

Peat at Falklands, 248, 256.

Pembroke, Cape (Falklands), 226.

Peñas, Gulf of, wild potato, ‘pangue,’ 200.

Penco, 420

-- castle, 421

-- coal, 423.

Peru, coast of, survey, 483.

Pichidanque, 426.

Plata River, entrance, width, depth, shoals, currents, pamperoes,

85-88

-- effects on river, 89

-- level of river and ocean, 91

-- fluctuations, Yngles Bank, 92

-- tides, want of trees, 93, 94

-- observations on, 115.

Pococke, Cape, 565.

Pomare, New Zealand, 581.

Pomare’s tomb, at Otaheite, 514.

Pomare Vahine, Queen of Otaheite, 516

-- arrival at Papiete, dress, 524

-- attendants, audience, reflections, 525, 526

-- consort, meeting, chapel, 527

-- Queen’s appearance, chiefs, 528

-- conduct, interpreter, 529

-- affair of the Truro, discussion, 530

-- Paamuto piracy, 531

-- generosity of natives, 532

-- arrangements, murderers, 533

-- missionaries, decree against enlisting for foreigners, 535

-- ‘Mare’ judge, appeal, case of Venilia, misconduct of her

captain, letter from Otaheitans to British Government, 536,

537

-- smuggling, questions, chiefs pleased, meeting ends, 541

-- good feeling, 542

-- Queen visits Beagle, fireworks, songs, 544

-- conduct, 545, 546

-- letter, attendants, taking leave, 556, 557.

Ponsonby Sound, boats there, natives, curious volcanic effects, 223.

Praya Port, anchor there, 51

-- beauty of country in interior, 52

-- fruit, population, 53.

Puma, 107

-- mode of killing colts, 313

-- large one shot, party followed by one, 357.

Quiriquina Island, 406, 407, 409, 411.

Rafts, easily constructed, 647

-- now used, 648.

Ramirez, Diego, islands, 124.

Rasa Point, stream of tide, 297.

Refuge Port, Spanish chart, 373.

Return to England, 638, 639.

Roberts, Mr., engaged as Pilot for Liebre schooner, 110

-- anecdote, 117

-- satisfactory conduct, parted from, 288.

Roussin, Baron, difference in measurement of meridian distance from

Bahia to Rio, 75

-- Beagle’s measurement confirmed, 78, 79.

Rowlett Island, wild potatoes, 374.

Rowlett, Mr., 19, 20

-- remarks on country near Port Praya, 52, 53

-- death of, 360.

Sanborombon Bay, 91

-- sounded, 292.

Santos, 84.

Savage, not the primitive state of man, 650.

Scotchwell Harbour, (Ipun), 223, 374.

Sebastian, San, Bay, bank, 322, 323.

Shingle Point, 215.

Ship Island, tide-stream, 305.

Simon, Jean, cattle-hunt, 279, 280

-- murdered by ‘gauchos’ at Port Louis, 328.

Simon’s Bay, 638.

Skyring Mount, 277.

Snake, H.M.S., sailing, build, remarks on ships, 289-292.

Socorro, Nuestra Señora del, island, 364-366.

Sounding, anecdote, 226

-- depths, 674, 676.

South Cape, Indian tomb, 305.

Spencer Cape, 122, 123.

Starve Island, 289.

Staten Land, wigwams, 365.

Stebbing, Mr. George James, engaged to attend to instruments, 19.

Stewart Island, 218.

Stewart, Mr., Puma-shooting, 357

-- in boats at Chilóe, 364

-- in Constitucion, 427.

Stokes, Mr. John Lort, 21

-- takes command of Paz schooner, 110

-- and of Liebre, 283

-- survey, 286

-- returns to Beagle, 288

-- account of proceedings in Paz, 295-302

-- survey of River Negro, 302

-- at Port Desire, 303

-- in Chupat, 306

-- surveying, 307

-- anecdote, 310

-- occupations, 315

-- remarks on Bellaco rocks, 318

-- at Port San Julian, 319

-- ascends River Santa Cruz, 337

-- explores and surveys part of Chonos Archipelago in

whale-boat, 367, 374, 375

-- at Galapagos, 493

-- notices of terrapin, 503, 504

-- of Otaheitans, 551, 552

-- of New Zealanders, 586.

Success, Good, Bay, natives, 120

-- fish, 225.

Sulivan, Lieut. B. James, appointed to Beagle, 14, 288, 336

-- goes with boats to survey Chilóe, 364-366

-- returns to Beagle at San Carlos, 378

-- notices of Indians, 385, 386, 387

-- takes command of ‘Constitucion,’ 427

-- at Callao, 482

-- goes with boat to examine Galapagos, 486, 497.

Swan Islands, meeting of tides, 242.

Sydney, light-house, town, 621

-- drought, aqueduct, position, 622

-- disadvantages, money-making, 623.

Tahiti (see Otaheite).

Tairo Island, discovered, 508.

Talcahuano, 402

-- great earthquake, rise of sea, effects, 406, 407

-- dogs, shipping, 408

-- anecdotes, motion of sea, 409

-- sub-marine explosions, fish killed, 410

-- height of wave, contrasts, 411

-- Araucanian boys, 478.

Taytao, or Taytaohaohuon Cape, rocks, 372.

Teneriffe, view of Peak, 47

-- measurements from thence, quarantine, 48.

Thetis frigate, account of her loss, 66-70

-- causes, 70, 71.

Tide in Plata, 89, 93

-- near Point Rubia, 116

-- near Cape San Diego, 120

-- in S.W. arm of Beagle Channel, 219

-- stream of tide near Falklands, 226

-- strength, direction, times, height, 241, 242

-- off Point Rasa, 297

-- rise in St. George Bay, 304

-- off Ship Island, and Cape Dos Bahias, race near New Bay, 305

-- Valdes Creek, 309

-- terrific ‘races’ there, 310

-- ripplings and races near Port San José, 311, 312

-- in First Narrow, 321

-- in Santa Cruz, 337, 339

-- velocity of river, 340, 344, 351

-- at Ipun, May Harbour, 375

-- near Chilóe, 387, 388

-- off ‘Three Kings,’ direction, temperature, 620.

Tolten River, Indians, coast near, bar, 402.

Toriano, an Araucanian cacique, death of, 106.

Tosca, 99, 100.

Topocalma shoal, 425.

Trinidad, Gulf of, natives, a fine race, feathers, paint, 197

-- plank canoes with oars, arms, 198.

Tubul River, 414.

Tucu-tucu, the, 313.

Tuyu, mud-bank, 292.

Unicorn schooner, 273

-- considerations, purchased, named Adventure, (see Adventure).

Union Bay, 286, 287.

Usborne, Mr. Alexander Burns, 20

-- goes in ‘Constitucion’ to assist Mr. Stokes, 283

-- returns to Beagle, 288, 314, 315

-- goes away in boats, 364

-- at San Carlos, 378

-- takes command of Carmen schooner to Leübu river, meets

Blonde, 469

-- bad weather, adventures, 474

-- escape, skill, 475

-- takes command of another vessel called ‘Constitucion,’ plan

of expedition, 483

-- receives kind assistance, 484

-- return to England, having completed his survey, 638, 639.

Valdes Creek, entrance, 98

-- tides, shifting bar, dangers, 309, 310.

Valdivia, port, forts, rivers, ‘Yntendente,’ secretary, 397

-- town, aborigines, 398-401

-- convicts, 401

-- great earthquake, motion, 415

-- shocks, 416.

Vallenar Road, 366, 369.

Ventana Mount, mines, 105

-- height, 109, 295.

Verde, Cape, Islands, observations on anchoring, gales, 51, 52

-- exports, 53

-- ‘orchilla’ weed, vegetables, sickly season, 54

-- dust, 55.

Vernet, Louis, appointed ‘comandante’ at Falklands, proceedings,

238, 239, 255

-- settlement, 266

-- delusion, 267

-- ruined 268.

Video, Monte, mutinous negroes, 95.

Villagran, battle, Ercilla, 435, 436.

Villarica mountain, height, 481.

Villarino, 314.

Virgins, Cape, 222, 357.

Waimate, 598

-- situation, appearance, corn, gardens, farm, 601

-- cattle, poultry, houses, 602

-- barn, water-wheel, 604

-- mill, Shunghi’s grave, English oaks, missionary families, 604

-- spirit, 606

-- valley, Kauri pine, woods, 606.

Water, white, extraordinary space of sea, supposed cause, 118.

Weddell Bluff, 340.

Whale-boat Sound, 218.

Wickham, Lieut. John Clement, 14, 21

-- takes command of Paz and Liebre, 111, 112, 116, 117

-- examines Indian graves, 168

-- cattle-hunt, 280-282

-- arrives to take command of Adventure at Gorriti, 284

-- proceedings in Liebre, 295

-- remarks on coast near Point Rasa, 297

-- Rio Negro, 298

-- Del Carmen, 299

-- on Indians and Spanish settlers, 300, 301

-- in Blanco Bay, River Negro, 302

-- at Port Desire, 303

-- discovers Chupat River, 306, 307

-- in great danger, 310

-- plans, 322

-- meets Mr. Low, engages him as pilot, at Port Louis, 331

-- sails again, 332

-- in Port Famine, 358, 360

-- at Valparaiso, Santiago, 361

-- returns to Beagle, 362

-- arrives in England, 638.

Wigram, Rev. Joseph, kindness to Fuegians, 10, 11.

William, Port, (Falklands) 227

-- tides, 242

-- suggestions for a settlement, advantages, 261, 262

-- accessibility, exports, 263.

Whylootacke, or Wailutaki, 557.

Williams, Corporal, drowned, 282, 302.

Wilson, Rev. William, admits Fuegians into infant school at

Walthamstow, 10

-- kindness, 11, 12

-- letter, 14

-- selects missionary to go out with them, 15, 16.

Wilson, Belford Hinton, effective assistance, 484.

Windhond Bay, 225.

Wolf near Colorado River, 296.

Wollaston Island, 225.

Wood Mount, 319.

Woollȳa, pleasant situation, natives, arrangements, 208, 209

-- wigwams and gardens made, natives assist, 210

-- fair prospects, curiosity of natives, 211, 212

-- boats depart, 214

-- re-visited, 220

-- events during absence, 221

-- missionary removed, difficulties, 222

-- re-visited, pleasing scene, occurrences, 224

-- events there, 323-327.

Zealand, New, 564

-- Kororareka, Tipuna, 565

-- natives’ flag, 566

-- Paihia, natives, 568

-- decrease of population, 569

-- colour, salutation, manner, war-canoes, 571

-- prospects of country, former savages of Britain, 572, 573

-- bones, tree, fern, 574

-- church, 575

-- British Resident’s house, vines, Kororareka, 576

-- huts, 577

-- cooking, church, burying-places, 579

-- anecdotes, Waripoaka, island, 580

-- Cawa-Cawa, Pomare, estuary, 581

-- pleasing scenes, traffic, 582

-- flax, meeting, chiefs, 583

-- curious dispute, rats, game, 584

-- precise division of territory, purchase of land, 585, 586

-- spirits, ‘Noah,’ native wine, church, 586, 587

-- oxen, sick, preserving food from damp, nets, burial, 588

-- Christmas, Divine service, remarks, singing, 589

-- state of the place, measures, 590

-- causes of disturbance, 591, 592

-- suggestions, influence of ships of war, 593

-- Polynesian interest, resources in Pacific, 594, 597

-- excursion to Waimate, Waitangi Creek, running guides,

activity, country, 599

-- woods, native village, agriculture, flax, manufacture, 599

-- chapel, fine-looking native, country easy of access, 600

-- curious bird, 601

-- Waimate, 601-606

-- valley, horses, bridge, woods, Keri-keri waterfall, beautiful

scene, 606

-- English children, natives fond of them, 607

-- Waripoaka visits Beagle, ‘La Favorite,’ Rangateedas, 608

-- political condition, relics, 609, 610

-- departure from, 611

-- remarks, 612, 613

-- settlements, trade, 614, 615

-- discontent of settlers, 616

-- pine-forests, 618

-- North cape, singular superstition, great lizards, 619, 620.

ADDENDA.

In the eighth chapter of this volume, I have omitted to mention that

there are meetings held among the Patagonians which might be termed

‘courts of justice!’

One such meeting was described to me by an eye-witness:--‘Capitan

Chico’ presided at it, on horseback: he was the only person mounted.

The older men of the tribe sat in a ring, upon the ground, as judges

(or rather as a council, or as a jury). Within the circle were four

prisoners, and twelve witnesses. The trial lasted a whole day: but my

informant did not see or hear the result.

The same individual told me that the Patagonians often played at a

game like hockey.

These things, among others, call to mind Molina’s account of the

Araucanians, which some think much exaggerated. Disorganised,

dispirited, and exceedingly diminished in numbers, the Araucanians,

as we now see them, are scarcely to be compared to those of Ercilla’s

poem, who are also described by many authors besides Molina.

END OF VOL. II.

LONDON:

Printed by J. L. COX and SONS, 75, Great Queen Street,

Lincoln’s-Inn Fields.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE

Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been

corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within

the text and consultation of external sources.

Some hyphens in words have been silently removed, some added,

when a predominant preference was found in the original book.

Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text,

and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.

Pg vii: ‘Produce--Orchilla’ replaced by ‘Produce--Archilla’.

Pg ix: ‘Fuegians--’ replaced by ‘Features--’.

Pg 20: ‘at Valparasio’ replaced by ‘at Valparaiso’.

Pg 51: ‘so familar to’ replaced by ‘so familiar to’.

Footnote [8] in Chapter V has two anchors on page 107.

Pg 223: ‘were obsevred,’ replaced by ‘were observed,’.

Pg 238: ‘great obstables’ replaced by ‘great obstacles’.

Pg 239, Footnote [15]: ‘page 236’ replaced by ‘page 235’.

Pg 241: ‘First Appearance--’ replaced by ‘First Appearance of

Falklands--’ (to match TOC entry for CHAPTER XII).

Pg 241: ‘times of syzigial’ replaced by ‘times of syzygial’.

Pg 325: ‘in Febuary 1833’ replaced by ‘in February 1833’.

Pg 401: ‘means a a feast’ replaced by ‘means a feast’.

Pg 430: ‘man was Vogelberg’ replaced by ‘man was Vogelborg’.

Pg 430: ‘by Vogelberg and’ replaced by ‘by Vogelborg and’.

Pg 470: ‘Vogelberg, who’ replaced by ‘Vogelborg, who’.

Pg 493: ‘the plaintain’ replaced by ‘the plantain’.

Pg 513, Footnote [11]: ‘wa fined eight’ replaced by ‘was fined eight’.

Pg 590: ‘to show what’ replaced by ‘To show what’.

Pg 601: ‘superintendant of the’ replaced by ‘superintendent of the’.

Pg 643: ‘5/8 negro, 4/8 white.’ replaced by ‘5/8 negro, 3/8 white’.

Index:

Pg 689: (Huaytecas) ‘376, 376.’ replaced by ‘376, 377.’.

Pg 689: (Krusenstern) Entry moved to correct place.

Pg 693: (Usborne) ‘plan of expedidition’ replaced by ‘plan of expedition’.

Pg 694: (Zealand) ‘polititical condition’ replaced by ‘political condition’.