MAURITIUS TO ENGLAND
Mauritius, beautiful appearance of—Great crateriform ring of
mountains—Hindoos—St. Helena—History of the changes in the
vegetation—Cause of the extinction of land-shells—Ascension—Variation
in the imported rats—Volcanic bombs—Beds of infusoria—Bahia,
Brazil—Splendour of tropical scenery—Pernambuco—Singular
reef—Slavery—Return to England—Retrospect on our voyage.
_April_ 29_th._—In the morning we passed round the northern end of
Mauritius, or the Isle of France. From this point of view the aspect of
the island equalled the expectations raised by the many well-known
descriptions of its beautiful scenery. The sloping plain of the
Pamplemousses, interspersed with houses, and coloured by the large
fields of sugar-cane of a bright green, composed the foreground. The
brilliancy of the green was the more remarkable because it is a colour
which generally is conspicuous only from a very short distance. Towards
the centre of the island groups of wooded mountains rose out of this
highly cultivated plain; their summits, as so commonly happens with
ancient volcanic rocks, being jagged
into the sharpest points. Masses of white clouds were collected around
these pinnacles, as if for the sake of pleasing the stranger’s eye. The
whole island, with its sloping border and central mountains, was
adorned with an air of perfect elegance: the scenery, if I may use such
an expression, appeared to the sight harmonious.
I spent the greater part of the next day in walking about the town and
visiting different people. The town is of considerable size, and is
said to contain 20,000 inhabitants; the streets are very clean and
regular. Although the island has been so many years under the English
government, the general character of the place is quite French:
Englishmen speak to their servants in French, and the shops are all
French; indeed I should think that Calais or Boulogne was much more
Anglified. There is a very pretty little theatre in which operas are
excellently performed. We were also surprised at seeing large
booksellers’ shops, with well-stored shelves;—music and reading bespeak
our approach to the old world of civilisation; for in truth both
Australia and America are new worlds.
The various races of men walking in the streets afford the most
interesting spectacle in Port Louis. Convicts from India are banished
here for life; at present there are about 800, and they are employed in
various public works. Before seeing these people, I had no idea that
the inhabitants of India were such noble-looking figures. Their skin is
extremely dark, and many of the older men had large mustaches and
beards of a snow-white colour; this, together with the fire of their
expression, gave them quite an imposing aspect. The greater number had
been banished for murder and the worst crimes; others for causes which
can scarcely be considered as moral faults, such as for not obeying,
from superstitious motives, the English laws. These men are generally
quiet and well-conducted; from their outward conduct, their cleanliness
and faithful observance of their strange religious rites, it was
impossible to look at them with the same eyes as on our wretched
convicts in New South Wales.
_May_ 1_st._—Sunday. I took a quiet walk along the sea-coast to the
north of the town. The plain in this part is quite uncultivated; it
consists of a field of black lava, smoothed over with coarse grass and
bushes, the latter being chiefly Mimosas.
The scenery may be described as intermediate in character between that
of the Galapagos and of Tahiti; but this will convey a definite idea to
very few persons. It is a very pleasant country, but it has not the
charms of Tahiti, or the grandeur of Brazil. The next day I ascended La
Pouce, a mountain so called from a thumb-like projection, which rises
close behind the town to a height of 2,600 feet. The centre of the
island consists of a great platform, surrounded by old broken basaltic
mountains, with their strata dipping seawards. The central platform,
formed of comparatively recent streams of lava, is of an oval shape,
thirteen geographical miles across in the line of its shorter axis. The
exterior bounding mountains come into that class of structures called
Craters of Elevation, which are supposed to have been formed not like
ordinary craters, but by a great and sudden upheaval. There appear to
me to be insuperable objections to this view: on the other hand, I can
hardly believe, in this and in some other cases, that these marginal
crateriform mountains are merely the basal remnants of immense
volcanos, of which the summits either have been blown off or swallowed
up in subterranean abysses.
From our elevated position we enjoyed an excellent view over the
island. The country on this side appears pretty well cultivated, being
divided into fields and studded with farm-houses. I was however assured
that of the whole land not more than half is yet in a productive state;
if such be the case, considering the present large export of sugar,
this island, at some future period when thickly peopled, will be of
great value. Since England has taken possession of it, a period of only
twenty-five years, the export of sugar is said to have increased
seventy-five fold. One great cause of its prosperity is the excellent
state of the roads. In the neighbouring Isle of Bourbon, which remains
under the French government, the roads are still in the same miserable
state as they were here only a few years ago. Although the French
residents must have largely profited by the increased prosperity of
their island, yet the English government is far from popular.
3_rd._—In the evening Captain Lloyd, the Surveyor-general, so well
known from his examination of the Isthmus of Panama, invited Mr. Stokes
and myself to his country-house, which is situated on the edge of
Wilheim Plains, and about six miles
from the Port. We stayed at this delightful place two days; standing
nearly 800 feet above the sea, the air was cool and fresh, and on every
side there were delightful walks. Close by a grand ravine has been worn
to a depth of about 500 feet through the slightly inclined streams of
lava, which have flowed from the central platform.
5_th._—Captain Lloyd took us to the Rivière Noire, which is several
miles to the southward, that I might examine some rocks of elevated
coral. We passed through pleasant gardens, and fine fields of
sugar-cane growing amidst huge blocks of lava. The roads were bordered
by hedges of Mimosa, and near many of the houses there were avenues of
the mango. Some of the views where the peaked hills and the cultivated
farms were seen together, were exceedingly picturesque; and we were
constantly tempted to exclaim “How pleasant it would be to pass one’s
life in such quiet abodes!” Captain Lloyd possessed an elephant, and he
sent it half-way with us, that we might enjoy a ride in true Indian
fashion. The circumstance which surprised me most was its quite
noiseless step. This elephant is the only one at present on the island;
but it is said others will be sent for.
_May_ 9_th._—We sailed from Port Louis, and, calling at the Cape of
Good Hope, on the 8th of July we arrived off St. Helena. This island,
the forbidding aspect of which has been so often described, rises
abruptly like a huge black castle from the ocean. Near the town, as if
to complete nature’s defence, small forts and guns fill up every gap in
the rugged rocks. The town runs up a flat and narrow valley; the houses
look respectable, and are interspersed with a very few green trees.
When approaching the anchorage there was one striking view: an
irregular castle perched on the summit of a lofty hill, and surrounded
by a few scattered fir-trees, boldly projected against the sky.
The next day I obtained lodgings within a stone’s throw of Napoleon’s
tomb;[1] it was a capital central situation, whence I
could make excursions in every direction. During the four days I stayed
here I wandered over the island from morning to night and examined its
geological history. My lodgings were situated at a height of about 2000
feet; here the weather was cold and boisterous, with constant showers
of rain; and every now and then the whole scene was veiled in thick
clouds.
[1] After the volumes of eloquence which have poured forth on this
subject, it is dangerous even to mention the tomb. A modern traveller,
in twelve lines, burdens the poor little island with the following
titles,—it is a grave, tomb, pyramid, cemetery, sepulchre, catacomb,
sarcophagus, minaret, and mausoleum!
St. Helena
Near the coast the rough lava is quite bare: in the central and higher
parts feldspathic rocks by their decomposition have produced a clayey
soil, which, where not covered by vegetation, is stained in broad bands
of many bright colours. At this season the land, moistened by constant
showers, produces a singularly bright green pasture, which lower and
lower down gradually fades away and at last disappears. In latitude
16°, and at the trifling elevation of 1500 feet, it is surprising to
behold a vegetation possessing a character decidedly British. The hills
are crowned with irregular plantations of Scotch firs; and the sloping
banks are thickly scattered over with thickets of gorse, covered with
its bright yellow flowers. Weeping-willows are common on the banks of
the rivulets, and the hedges are made of the blackberry, producing its
well-known fruit. When we consider that the number of plants now found
on the island is 746, and that out of these fifty-two alone are
indigenous species, the rest having been imported, and most of them
from England, we see the reason of the British character of the
vegetation. Many of these English plants appear to flourish better than
in their native country; some also from the opposite quarter of
Australia succeed remarkably well. The many imported species must have
destroyed some of the native kinds; and it is only on the highest and
steepest ridges that the indigenous Flora is now predominant.
The English, or rather Welsh character of the scenery, is kept up by
the numerous cottages and small white houses; some buried at the bottom
of the deepest valleys, and others mounted on the crests of the lofty
hills. Some of the views are striking, for instance that from near Sir
W. Doveton’s house, where the bold peak called Lot is seen over a dark
wood of firs, the whole being backed by the red water-worn mountains of
the southern coast. On viewing the island from an eminence, the first
circumstance which strikes one is the number of the roads and forts:
the labour bestowed on the public works, if one forgets its character
as a prison, seems out of all proportion to its extent or value. There
is so little level or useful land that it seems surprising how so many
people, about 5000, can subsist here. The lower orders, or the
emancipated slaves, are, I believe, extremely poor: they complain of
the want of work. From the reduction in the number of public servants,
owing to the island having been given up by the East India Company, and
the consequent emigration of many of the richer people, the poverty
probably will increase. The chief food of the working class is rice
with a little salt meat; as neither of these articles are the products
of the island, but must be purchased with money, the low wages tell
heavily on the poor people. Now that the people are blessed with
freedom, a right which I believe they value fully, it seems probable
that their numbers will quickly increase: if so, what is to become of
the little state of St. Helena?
My guide was an elderly man who had been a goatherd when a boy, and
knew every step amongst the rocks. He was of a race many times crossed,
and although with a dusky skin, he had not the disagreeable expression
of a mulatto. He was a very civil, quiet old man, and such appears the
character of the greater number of the lower classes. It was strange to
my ears to hear a man, nearly white and respectably dressed, talking
with indifference of the times when he was a slave. With my companion,
who carried our dinners and a horn of water, which is quite necessary,
as all the water in the lower valleys is saline, I every day took long
walks.
Beneath the upper and central green circle, the wild valleys are quite
desolate and untenanted. Here, to the geologist, there were scenes of
high interest, showing successive changes and complicated disturbances.
According to my views, St. Helena has existed as an island from a very
remote epoch: some obscure proofs, however, of the elevation of the
land are still extant. I believe that the central and highest peaks
form parts of the rim of a great crater, the southern half of which has
been entirely removed by the waves of the sea: there is, moreover, an
external wall of black basaltic rocks, like the coast-mountains of
Mauritius, which are older than the central volcanic streams. On the
higher parts of the island considerable numbers of a shell, long
thought to be a marine species, occur imbedded in the soil. It proves
to be a Cochlogena, or land-shell of a very peculiar form;[2] with it I
found six other kinds; and in another spot an eighth species. It is
remarkable that none of them are now found living. Their extinction has
probably been caused by the entire destruction of the woods, and the
consequent loss of food and shelter, which occurred during the early
part of the last century.
[2] It deserves notice that all the many specimens of this shell found
by me in one spot differ as a marked variety from another set of
specimens procured from a different spot.
The history of the changes which the elevated plains of Longwood and
Deadwood have undergone, as given in General Beatson’s account of the
island, is extremely curious. Both plains, it is said, in former times
were covered with wood, and were therefore called the Great Wood. So
late as the year 1716 there were many trees, but in 1724 the old trees
had mostly fallen; and as goats and hogs had been suffered to range
about, all the young trees had been killed. It appears also from the
official records that the trees were unexpectedly, some years
afterwards, succeeded by a wire grass which spread over the whole
surface.[3] General Beatson adds that now this
plain “is covered with fine sward, and is become the finest piece of
pasture on the island.” The extent of surface, probably covered by wood
at a former period, is estimated at no less than two thousand acres; at
the present day scarcely a single tree can be found there. It is also
said that in 1709 there were quantities of dead trees in Sandy Bay;
this place is now so utterly desert that nothing but so well attested
an account could have made me believe that they could ever have grown
there. The fact that the goats and hogs destroyed all the young trees
as they sprang up, and that in the course of time the old ones, which
were safe from their attacks, perished from age, seems clearly made
out. Goats were introduced in the year 1502; eighty-six years
afterwards, in the time of Cavendish, it is known that they were
exceedingly numerous. More than a century afterwards, in 1731, when the
evil was complete and irretrievable, an order was issued that all stray
animals should be destroyed. It is very interesting thus to find that
the arrival of animals at St. Helena in 1501 did not change the whole
aspect of the island, until a period of two hundred and twenty years
had elapsed: for the goats were introduced in 1502, and in 1724 it is
said “the old trees had mostly fallen.” There can be little doubt that
this great change in the vegetation affected not only the land-shells,
causing eight species to become extinct, but likewise a multitude of
insects.
[3] Beatson’s _St. Helena_. Introductory chapter, p. 4.
St. Helena, situated so remote from any continent, in the midst of a
great ocean, and possessing a unique Flora, excites our curiosity. The
eight land-shells, though now extinct, and one living Succinea, are
peculiar species found nowhere else. Mr. Cuming, however, informs me
that an English Helix is common here, its eggs no doubt having been
imported in some of the many introduced plants. Mr. Cuming collected on
the coast sixteen species of sea-shells, of which seven, as far as he
knows, are confined to this island. Birds and insects,[4] as
might have been expected, are very few in number; indeed I believe all
the birds have been introduced within late years. Partridges and
pheasants are tolerably abundant; the island is much too English not to
be subject to strict game-laws. I was told of a more unjust sacrifice
to such ordinances than I ever heard of even in England. The poor
people formerly used to burn a plant which grows on the coast-rocks,
and export the soda from its ashes; but a peremptory order came out
prohibiting this practice, and giving as a reason that the partridges
would have nowhere to build!
[4] Among these few insects I was surprised to find a small Aphodius
(nov. spec.) and an Oryctes, both extremely numerous under dung. When
the island was discovered it certainly possessed no quadruped
excepting _perhaps_ a mouse: it becomes, therefore, a difficult point
to ascertain, whether these stercovorous insects have since been
imported by accident, or if aborigines, on what food they formerly
subsisted. On the banks of the Plata, where, from the vast number of
cattle and horses, the fine plains of turf are richly manured, it is
vain to seek the many kinds of dung-feeding beetles which occur so
abundantly in Europe. I observed only an Oryctes (the insects of this
genus in Europe generally feed on decayed vegetable matter) and two
species of Phanæus, common in such situations. On the opposite side of
the Cordillera in Chiloe another species of Phanæus is exceedingly
abundant, and it buries the dung of the cattle in large earthen balls
beneath the ground. There is reason to believe that the genus Phanæus,
before the introduction of cattle, acted as scavengers to man. In
Europe beetles which find support in the matter which has already
contributed towards the life of other and larger animals, are so
numerous that there must be considerably more than one hundred
different species. Considering this, and observing what a quantity of
food of this kind is lost on the plains of La Plata, I imagined I saw
an instance where man had disturbed that chain by which so many
animals are linked together in their native country. In Van Diemen’s
Land, however, I found four species of Onthophagus, two of Aphodius,
and one of a third genus, very abundant under the dung of cows; yet
these latter animals had been then introduced only thirty-three years.
Previous to that time the kangaroo and some other small animals were
the only quadrupeds; and their dung is of a very different quality
from that of their successors introduced by man. In England the
greater number of stercovorous beetles are confined in their
appetites; that is, they do not depend indifferently on any quadruped
for the means of subsistence. The change, therefore, in habits which
must have taken place in Van Diemen’s Land is highly remarkable. I am
indebted to the Reverend F. W. Hope, who, I hope, will permit me to
call him my master in Entomology, for giving me the names of the
foregoing insects.
In my walks I passed more than once over the grassy plain, bounded by
deep valleys, on which Longwood stands. Viewed from a short distance,
it appears like a respectable gentleman’s country-seat. In front there
are a few cultivated fields, and beyond them the smooth hill of
coloured rocks called the Flagstaff, and the rugged square black mass
of the Barn. On the whole the view was rather bleak and uninteresting.
The only inconvenience I suffered during my walks was from the
impetuous winds. One day I noticed a curious circumstance: standing on
the edge of a plain, terminated by a great cliff of about a thousand
feet in depth, I saw at the distance of a few yards right to windward,
some tern, struggling against a very strong breeze, whilst, where I
stood, the air was quite calm.
Approaching close to the brink, where the current seemed to be
deflected upwards from the face of the cliff, I stretched out my arm,
and immediately felt the full force of the wind: an invisible barrier,
two yards in width, separated perfectly calm air from a strong blast.
I so much enjoyed my rambles among the rocks and mountains of St.
Helena that I felt almost sorry on the morning of the 14th to descend
to the town. Before noon I was on board, and the _ Beagle_ made sail.
On the 19th of July we reached Ascension. Those who have beheld a
volcanic island situated under an arid climate will at once be able to
picture to themselves the appearance of Ascension. They will imagine
smooth conical hills of a bright red colour, with their summits
generally truncated, rising separately out of a level surface of black
rugged lava. A principal mound in the centre of the island seems the
father of the lesser cones. It is called Green Hill: its name being
taken from the faintest tinge of that colour, which at this time of the
year is barely perceptible from the anchorage. To complete the desolate
scene, the black rocks on the coast are lashed by a wild and turbulent
sea.
The settlement is near the beach; it consists of several houses and
barracks placed irregularly, but well built of white freestone. The
only inhabitants are marines, and some negroes liberated from
slave-ships, who are paid and victualled by government. There is not a
private person on the island. Many of the marines appeared well
contented with their situation; they think it better to serve their
one-and-twenty years on shore, let it be what it may, than in a ship;
in this choice, if I were a marine, I should most heartily agree.
The next morning I ascended Green Hill, 2840 feet high, and thence
walked across the island to the windward point. A good cart-road leads
from the coast-settlement to the houses, gardens, and fields, placed
near the summit of the central mountain. On the roadside there are
milestones, and likewise cisterns, where each thirsty passer-by can
drink some good water. Similar care is displayed in each part of the
establishment, and especially in the management of the springs, so that
a single drop of water may not be lost: indeed the whole island
may be compared to a huge ship kept in first-rate order. I could not
help, when admiring the active industry which had created such effects
out of such means, at the same time regretting that it had been wasted
on so poor and trifling an end. M. Lesson has remarked with justice
that the English nation would have thought of making the island of
Ascension a productive spot, any other people would have held it as a
mere fortress in the ocean.
Near this coast nothing grows; farther inland an occasional green
castor-oil plant, and a few grasshoppers, true friends of the desert,
may be met with. Some grass is scattered over the surface of the
central elevated region, and the whole much resembles the worse parts
of the Welsh mountains. But, scanty as the pasture appears, about six
hundred sheep, many goats, a few cows and horses, all thrive well on
it. Of native animals, land-crabs and rats swarm in numbers. Whether
the rat is really indigenous may well be doubted; there are two
varieties as described by Mr. Waterhouse; one is of a black colour,
with fine glossy fur, and lives on the grassy summit, the other is
brown-coloured and less glossy, with longer hairs, and lives near the
settlement on the coast. Both these varieties are one-third smaller
than the common black rat (M. rattus); and they differ from it both in
the colour and character of their fur, but in no other essential
respect. I can hardly doubt that these rats (like the common mouse,
which has also run wild) have been imported, and, as at the Galapagos,
have varied from the effect of the new conditions to which they have
been exposed: hence the variety on the summit of the island differs
from that on the coast. Of native birds there are none; but the
guinea-fowl, imported from the Cape de Verd Islands, is abundant, and
the common fowl has likewise run wild. Some cats which were originally
turned out to destroy the rats and mice, have increased, so as to
become a great plague. The island is entirely without trees, in which,
and in every other respect, it is very far inferior to St. Helena.
One of my excursions took me towards the south-west extremity of the
island. The day was clear and hot, and I saw the island, not smiling
with beauty, but staring with naked hideousness. The lava streams are
covered with hummocks, and are rugged to a degree which, geologically
speaking, is not of easy
explanation. The intervening spaces are concealed with layers of
pumice, ashes and volcanic tuff. Whilst passing this end of the island
at sea, I could not imagine what the white patches were with which the
whole plain was mottled; I now found that they were sea-fowl, sleeping
in such full confidence, that even in mid-day a man could walk up and
seize hold of them. These birds were the only living creatures I saw
during the whole day. On the beach a great surf, although the breeze
was light, came tumbling over the broken lava rocks.
Cellular formation of volcanic bomb
The geology of this island is in many respects interesting. In several
places I noticed volcanic bombs, that is, masses of lava which have
been shot through the air whilst fluid, and have consequently assumed a
spherical or pear-shape. Not only their external form, but, in several
cases, their internal structure shows in a very curious manner that
they have revolved in their aërial course. The internal structure of
one of these bombs, when broken, is represented very accurately in
Plate 103. The central part is coarsely cellular, the cells decreasing
in size towards the exterior; where there is a shell-like case about
the third of an inch in thickness, of compact stone, which again is
overlaid by the outside crust of finely cellular lava. I think there
can be little doubt, first, that the external crust cooled rapidly in
the state in which we now see it;
secondly, that the still fluid lava within was packed by the
centrifugal force generated by the revolving of the bomb, against the
external cooled crust, and so produced the solid shell of stone; and
lastly, that the centrifugal force, by relieving the pressure in the
more central parts of the bomb, allowed the heated vapours to expand
their cells, thus forming the coarse cellular mass of the centre.
A hill formed of the older series of volcanic rocks, and which has been
incorrectly considered as the crater of a volcano, is remarkable from
its broad, slightly hollowed, and circular summit having been filled up
with many successive layers of ashes and fine scoriæ. These
saucer-shaped layers crop out on the margin, forming perfect rings of
many different colours, giving to the summit a most fantastic
appearance; one of these rings is white and broad, and resembles a
course round which horses have been exercised; hence the hill has been
called the Devil’s Riding School. I brought away specimens of one of
the tufaceous layers of a pinkish colour and it is a most extraordinary
fact that Professor Ehrenberg[5] finds it almost wholly composed of
matter which has been organised; he detects in it some
siliceous-shielded, fresh-water infusoria, and no less than twenty-five
different kinds of the siliceous tissue of plants, chiefly of grasses.
From the absence of all carbonaceous matter, Professor Ehrenberg
believes that these organic bodies have passed through the volcanic
fire, and have been erupted in the state in which we now see them. The
appearance of the layers induced me to believe that they had been
deposited under water, though from the extreme dryness of the climate I
was forced to imagine that torrents of rain had probably fallen during
some great eruption, and that thus a temporary lake had been formed
into which the ashes fell. But it may now be suspected that the lake
was not a temporary one. Anyhow we may feel sure that at some former
epoch the climate and productions of Ascension were very different from
what they now are. Where on the face of the earth can we find a spot on
which close investigation will not discover signs of that endless cycle
of change, to which this earth has been, is, and will be subjected?
[5] _Monats. der König. Akad. d. Wiss. zu Berlin,_ Vom April 1845.
On leaving Ascension, we sailed for Bahia, on the coast of
Brazil, in order to complete the chronometrical measurement of the
world. We arrived there on August 1st, and stayed four days, during
which I took several long walks. I was glad to find my enjoyment in
tropical scenery had not decreased from the want of novelty, even in
the slightest degree. The elements of the scenery are so simple that
they are worth mentioning, as a proof on what trifling circumstances
exquisite natural beauty depends.
The country may be described as a level plain of about three hundred
feet in elevation, which in all parts has been worn into flat-bottomed
valleys. This structure is remarkable in a granitic land, but is nearly
universal in all those softer formations of which plains are usually
composed. The whole surface is covered by various kinds of stately
trees, interspersed with patches of cultivated ground, out of which
houses, convents, and chapels arise. It must be remembered that within
the tropics the wild luxuriance of nature is not lost even in the
vicinity of large cities: for the natural vegetation of the hedges and
hill-sides overpowers in picturesque effect the artificial labour of
man. Hence, there are only a few spots where the bright red soil
affords a strong contrast with the universal clothing of green. From
the edges of the plain there are distant views either of the ocean, or
of the great Bay with its low-wooded shores, and on which numerous
boats and canoes show their white sails. Excepting from these points,
the scene is extremely limited; following the level pathways, on each
hand, only glimpses into the wooded valleys below can be obtained. The
houses I may add, and especially the sacred edifices, are built in a
peculiar and rather fantastic style of architecture. They are all
whitewashed; so that when illumined by the brilliant sun of mid-day,
and as seen against the pale blue sky of the horizon, they stand out
more like shadows than real buildings.
Such are the elements of the scenery, but it is a hopeless attempt to
paint the general effect. Learned naturalists describe these scenes of
the tropics by naming a multitude of objects, and mentioning some
characteristic feature of each. To a learned traveller this possibly
may communicate some definite ideas: but who else from seeing a plant
in an herbarium can imagine its appearance when growing in its native
soil? Who from seeing choice plants in a hothouse can
magnify some into the dimensions of forest trees, and crowd others into
an entangled jungle? Who when examining in the cabinet of the
entomologist the gay exotic butterflies, and singular cicadas, will
associate with these lifeless objects the ceaseless harsh music of the
latter and the lazy flight of the former,—the sure accompaniments of
the still, glowing noonday of the tropics? It is when the sun has
attained its greatest height that such scenes should be viewed: then
the dense splendid foliage of the mango hides the ground with its
darkest shade, whilst the upper branches are rendered from the
profusion of light of the most brilliant green. In the temperate zones
the case is different—the vegetation there is not so dark or so rich,
and hence the rays of the declining sun, tinged of a red, purple, or
bright yellow colour, add most to the beauties of those climes.
When quietly walking along the shady pathways, and admiring each
successive view, I wished to find language to express my ideas. Epithet
after epithet was found too weak to convey to those who have not
visited the intertropical regions the sensation of delight which the
mind experiences. I have said that the plants in a hothouse fail to
communicate a just idea of the vegetation, yet I must recur to it. The
land is one great wild, untidy, luxuriant hothouse, made by Nature for
herself, but taken possession of by man, who has studded it with gay
houses and formal gardens. How great would be the desire in every
admirer of nature to behold, if such were possible, the scenery of
another planet! yet to every person in Europe, it may be truly said,
that at the distance of only a few degrees from his native soil the
glories of another world are opened to him. In my last walk I stopped
again and again to gaze on these beauties, and endeavoured to fix in my
mind for ever an impression which at the time I knew sooner or later
must fail. The form of the orange-tree, the cocoa-nut, the palm, the
mango, the tree-fern, the banana, will remain clear and separate; but
the thousand beauties which unite these into one perfect scene must
fade away: yet they will leave, like a tale heard in childhood, a
picture full of indistinct, but most beautiful figures.
_August_ 6_th._—In the afternoon we stood out to sea, with the
intention of making a direct course to the Cape de Verd
Islands. Unfavourable winds, however, delayed us, and on the 12th we
ran into Pernambuco,—a large city on the coast of Brazil, in latitude
8° south. We anchored outside the reef; but in a short time a pilot
came on board and took us into the inner harbour, where we lay close to
the town.
Pernambuco is built on some narrow and low sand-banks which are
separated from each other by shoal channels of salt water. The three
parts of the town are connected together by two long bridges built on
wooden piles. The town is in all parts disgusting, the streets being
narrow, ill-paved, and filthy; the houses tall and gloomy. The season
of heavy rains had hardly come to an end, and hence the surrounding
country, which is scarcely raised above the level of the sea, was
flooded with water; and I failed in all my attempts to take long walks.
The flat swampy land on which Pernambuco stands is surrounded, at the
distance of a few miles, by a semicircle of low hills, or rather by the
edge of a country elevated perhaps two hundred feet above the sea. The
old city of Olinda stands on one extremity of this range. One day I
took a canoe, and proceeded up one of the channels to visit it; I found
the old town from its situation both sweeter and cleaner than that of
Pernambuco. I must here commemorate what happened for the first time
during our nearly five years’ wandering, namely, having met with a want
of politeness; I was refused in a sullen manner at two different
houses, and obtained with difficulty from a third, permission to pass
through their gardens to an uncultivated hill, for the purpose of
viewing the country. I feel glad that this happened in the land of the
Brazilians, for I bear them no good will—a land also of slavery, and
therefore of moral debasement. A Spaniard would have felt ashamed at
the very thought of refusing such a request, or of behaving to a
stranger with rudeness. The channel by which we went to and returned
from Olinda was bordered on each side by mangroves, which sprang like a
miniature forest out of the greasy mud-banks. The bright green colour
of these bushes always reminded me of the rank grass in a churchyard:
both are nourished by putrid exhalations; the one speaks of death past,
and the other too often of death to come.
Cicada Homoptera
The most curious object which I saw in this neighbourhood was the reef
that forms the harbour. I doubt whether in the whole world any other
natural structure has so artificial an appearance.[6] It runs for a
length of several miles in an absolutely straight line, parallel to and
not far distant from the shore. It varies in width from thirty to sixty
yards, and its surface is level and smooth; it is composed of
obscurely-stratified hard sandstone. At high water the waves break over
it; at low water its summit is left dry, and it might then be mistaken
for a breakwater erected by Cyclopean workmen. On this coast the
currents of the sea tend to throw up in front of the land long spits
and bars of loose sand, and on one of these part of the town of
Pernambuco stands. In former times a long spit of this nature seems to
have become consolidated by the percolation of calcareous matter, and
afterwards to have been gradually upheaved; the outer and loose parts
during this process having been worn away by the action of the sea, and
the solid nucleus left as we now see it. Although night and day the
waves of the open Atlantic, turbid with sediment, are driven against
the steep outside edges of this wall of stone, yet the oldest pilots
know of no tradition of any change in its appearance. This durability
is much the most curious fact in its history: it is due to a tough
layer, a few inches thick, of calcareous matter, wholly formed by the
successive growth and death of the small shells of Serpulæ, together
with some few barnacles and nulliporæ. These nulliporæ, which are hard,
very simply-organised sea-plants, play an analogous and important part
in protecting the upper surfaces of coral-reefs, behind and within the
breakers, where
the true corals, during the outward growth of the mass, become killed
by exposure to the sun and air. These insignificant organic beings,
especially the Serpulæ, have done good service to the people of
Pernambuco; for without their protective aid the bar of sandstone would
inevitably have been long ago worn away and without the bar, there
would have been no harbour.
[6] I have described this Bar in detail in the _ Lond. and Edin. Phil.
Mag._ vol. xix, (1841) p. 257.
On the 19th of August we finally left the shores of Brazil. I thank
God, I shall never again visit a slave-country. To this day, if I hear
a distant scream, it recalls with painful vividness my feelings, when
passing a house near Pernambuco, I heard the most pitiable moans, and
could not but suspect that some poor slave was being tortured, yet knew
that I was as powerless as a child even to remonstrate. I suspected
that these moans were from a tortured slave, for I was told that this
was the case in another instance. Near Rio de Janeiro I lived opposite
to an old lady, who kept screws to crush the fingers of her female
slaves. I have stayed in a house where a young household mulatto, daily
and hourly, was reviled, beaten, and persecuted enough to break the
spirit of the lowest animal. I have seen a little boy, six or seven
years old, struck thrice with a horse-whip (before I could interfere)
on his naked head, for having handed me a glass of water not quite
clean; I saw his father tremble at a mere glance from his master’s eye.
These latter cruelties were witnessed by me in a Spanish colony, in
which it has always been said that slaves are better treated than by
the Portuguese, English, or other European nations. I have seen at Rio
de Janeiro a powerful negro afraid to ward off a blow directed, as he
thought, at his face. I was present when a kind-hearted man was on the
point of separating forever the men, women, and little children of a
large number of families who had long lived together. I will not even
allude to the many heart-sickening atrocities which I authentically
heard of;—nor would I have mentioned the above revolting details, had I
not met with several people, so blinded by the constitutional gaiety of
the negro as to speak of slavery as a tolerable evil. Such people have
generally visited at the houses of the upper classes, where the
domestic slaves are usually well treated, and they have not, like
myself, lived amongst the lower classes. Such inquirers will ask
slaves about their condition; they forget that the slave must indeed be
dull who does not calculate on the chance of his answer reaching his
master’s ears.
Homeward bound
It is argued that self-interest will prevent excessive cruelty; as if
self-interest protected our domestic animals, which are far less likely
than degraded slaves to stir up the rage of their savage masters. It is
an argument long since protested against with noble feeling, and
strikingly exemplified, by the ever-illustrious Humboldt. It is often
attempted to palliate slavery by comparing the state of slaves with our
poorer countrymen: if the misery of our poor be caused not by the laws
of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin; but how this
bears on slavery, I cannot see; as well might the use of the
thumb-screw be defended in one land, by showing that men in another
land suffered from some dreadful disease. Those who look tenderly at
the slave owner, and with a cold heart at the slave, never seem to put
themselves into the position of the latter;—what a cheerless prospect,
with not even a hope of change! picture to yourself the chance, ever
hanging over you, of your wife and your little children—those objects
which nature urges even the slave to call his own—being torn from you
and sold like beasts to the first bidder!
And these deeds are done and palliated by men who profess to love their
neighbours as themselves, who believe in God, and pray that His Will be
done on earth! It makes one’s blood boil, yet heart tremble, to think
that we Englishmen and our American descendants, with their boastful
cry of liberty, have been and are so guilty; but it is a consolation to
reflect, that we at least have made a greater sacrifice than ever made
by any nation, to expiate our sin.
On the last day of August we anchored for the second time at Porto
Praya in the Cape de Verd archipelago; thence we proceeded to the
Azores, where we stayed six days. On the 2nd of October we made the
shores of England; and at Falmouth I left the _Beagle_, having lived on
board the good little vessel nearly five years.
Our Voyage having come to an end, I will take a short retrospect of the
advantages and disadvantages, the pains and pleasures, of our
circumnavigation of the world. If a person asked my advice, before
undertaking a long voyage, my answer would depend upon his possessing a
decided taste for some branch of knowledge, which could by this means
be advanced. No doubt it is a high satisfaction to behold various
countries and the many races of mankind, but the pleasures gained at
the time do not counterbalance the evils. It is necessary to look
forward to a harvest, however distant that may be, when some fruit will
be reaped, some good effected.
Many of the losses which must be experienced are obvious; such as that
of the society of every old friend, and of the sight of those places
with which every dearest remembrance is so intimately connected. These
losses, however, are at the time partly relieved by the exhaustless
delight of anticipating the long-wished-for day of return. If, as poets
say, life is a dream, I am sure in a voyage these are the visions which
best serve to pass away the long night. Other losses, although not at
first felt, tell heavily after a period: these are the want of room, of
seclusion, of rest; the jading feeling of constant hurry; the privation
of small luxuries, the loss of domestic society and even of music and
the other pleasures of imagination. When such trifles are mentioned, it
is evident that the real grievances,
excepting from accidents, of a sea-life are at an end. The short space
of sixty years has made an astonishing difference in the facility of
distant navigation. Even in the time of Cook, a man who left his
fireside for such expeditions underwent severe privations. A yacht now,
with every luxury of life, can circumnavigate the globe. Besides the
vast improvements in ships and naval resources, the whole western
shores of America are thrown open, and Australia has become the capital
of a rising continent. How different are the circumstances to a man
shipwrecked at the present day in the Pacific, to what they were in the
time of Cook! Since his voyage a hemisphere has been added to the
civilised world.
If a person suffer much from sea-sickness, let him weigh it heavily in
the balance. I speak from experience: it is no trifling evil, cured in
a week. If, on the other hand, he take pleasure in naval tactics, he
will assuredly have full scope for his taste. But it must be borne in
mind how large a proportion of the time, during a long voyage, is spent
on the water, as compared with the days in harbour. And what are the
boasted glories of the illimitable ocean? A tedious waste, a desert of
water, as the Arabian calls it. No doubt there are some delightful
scenes. A moonlight night, with the clear heavens and the dark
glittering sea, and the white sails filled by the soft air of a
gently-blowing trade-wind, a dead calm, with the heaving surface
polished like a mirror, and all still except the occasional flapping of
the canvas. It is well once to behold a squall with its rising arch and
coming fury, or the heavy gale of wind and mountainous waves. I
confess, however, my imagination had painted something more grand, more
terrific, in the full-grown storm. It is an incomparably finer
spectacle when beheld on shore, where the waving trees, the wild flight
of the birds, the dark shadows and bright lights, the rushing of the
torrents, all proclaim the strife of the unloosed elements. At sea the
albatross and little petrel fly as if the storm were their proper
sphere, the water rises and sinks as if fulfilling its usual task, the
ship alone and its inhabitants seem the objects of wrath. On a forlorn
and weather-beaten coast the scene is indeed different, but the
feelings partake more of horror than of wild delight.
Let us now look at the brighter side of the past time. The
pleasure derived from beholding the scenery and the general aspect of
the various countries we have visited has decidedly been the most
constant and highest source of enjoyment. It is probable that the
picturesque beauty of many parts of Europe exceeds anything which we
beheld. But there is a growing pleasure in comparing the character of
the scenery in different countries, which to a certain degree is
distinct from merely admiring its beauty. It depends chiefly on an
acquaintance with the individual parts of each view; I am strongly
induced to believe that as in music, the person who understands every
note will, if he also possesses a proper taste, more thoroughly enjoy
the whole, so he who examines each part of a fine view may also
thoroughly comprehend the full and combined effect. Hence, a traveller
should be a botanist, for in all views plants form the chief
embellishment. Group masses of naked rock even in the wildest forms,
and they may for a time afford a sublime spectacle, but they will soon
grow monotonous. Paint them with bright and varied colours, as in
Northern Chile, they will become fantastic; clothe them with
vegetation, they must form a decent, if not a beautiful picture.
When I say that the scenery of parts of Europe is probably superior to
anything which we beheld, I except, as a class by itself, that of the
intertropical zones. The two classes cannot be compared together; but I
have already often enlarged on the grandeur of those regions. As the
force of impressions generally depends on preconceived ideas, I may add
that mine were taken from the vivid descriptions in the _Personal
Narrative_ of Humboldt, which far exceed in merit anything else which I
have read. Yet with these high-wrought ideas, my feelings were far from
partaking of a tinge of disappointment on my first and final landing on
the shores of Brazil.
Among the scenes which are deeply impressed on my mind, none exceed in
sublimity the primeval forests undefaced by the hand of man; whether
those of Brazil, where the powers of Life are predominant, or those of
Tierra del Fuego, where Death and Decay prevail. Both are temples
filled with the varied productions of the God of Nature:—no one can
stand in these solitudes unmoved, and not feel that there is more in
man than the mere breath of his body. In calling up images of the past,
I find that the plains of Patagonia
frequently cross before my eyes; yet these plains are pronounced by all
wretched and useless. They can be described only by negative
characters; without habitations, without water, without trees, without
mountains, they support merely a few dwarf plants. Why, then, and the
case is not peculiar to myself, have these arid wastes taken so firm a
hold on my memory? Why have not the still more level, the greener and
more fertile Pampas, which are serviceable to mankind, produced an
equal impression? I can scarcely analyse these feelings: but it must be
partly owing to the free scope given to the imagination. The plains of
Patagonia are boundless, for they are scarcely passable, and hence
unknown: they bear the stamp of having lasted, as they are now, for
ages, and there appears no limit to their duration through future time.
If, as the ancients supposed, the flat earth was surrounded by an
impassable breadth of water, or by deserts heated to an intolerable
excess, who would not look at these last boundaries to man’s knowledge
with deep but ill-defined sensations?
Lastly, of natural scenery, the views from lofty mountains, though
certainly in one sense not beautiful, are very memorable. When looking
down from the highest crest of the Cordillera, the mind, undisturbed by
minute details, was filled with the stupendous dimensions of the
surrounding masses.
Of individual objects, perhaps nothing is more certain to create
astonishment than the first sight in his native haunt of a
barbarian,—of man in his lowest and most savage state. One’s mind
hurries back over past centuries, and then asks, Could our progenitors
have been men like these?—men, whose very signs and expressions are
less intelligible to us than those of the domesticated animals; men,
who do not possess the instinct of those animals, nor yet appear to
boast of human reason, or at least of arts consequent on that reason. I
do not believe it is possible to describe or paint the difference
between savage and civilised man. It is the difference between a wild
and tame animal: and part of the interest in beholding a savage is the
same which would lead every one to desire to see the lion in his
desert, the tiger tearing his prey in the jungle, or the rhinoceros
wandering over the wild plains of Africa.
Among the other most remarkable spectacles which we
have beheld, may be ranked the Southern Cross, the cloud of Magellan,
and the other constellations of the southern hemisphere—the
waterspout—the glacier leading its blue stream of ice, overhanging the
sea in a bold precipice—a lagoon-island raised by the reef-building
corals—an active volcano—and the overwhelming effects of a violent
earthquake. These latter phenomena, perhaps, possess for me a peculiar
interest, from their intimate connexion with the geological structure
of the world. The earthquake, however, must be to every one a most
impressive event: the earth, considered from our earliest childhood as
the type of solidity, has oscillated like a thin crust beneath our
feet; and in seeing the laboured works of man in a moment overthrown,
we feel the insignificance of his boasted power.
It has been said that the love of the chase is an inherent delight in
man—a relic of an instinctive passion. If so, I am sure the pleasure of
living in the open air, with the sky for a roof and the ground for a
table, is part of the same feeling; it is the savage returning to his
wild and native habits. I always look back to our boat cruises, and my
land journeys, when through unfrequented countries, with an extreme
delight, which no scenes of civilisation could have created. I do not
doubt that every traveller must remember the glowing sense of happiness
which he experienced when he first breathed in a foreign clime where
the civilised man had seldom or never trod.
There are several other sources of enjoyment in a long voyage which are
of a more reasonable nature. The map of the world ceases to be a blank;
it becomes a picture full of the most varied and animated figures. Each
part assumes its proper dimensions: continents are not looked at in the
light of islands, or islands considered as mere specks, which are, in
truth, larger than many kingdoms of Europe. Africa, or North and South
America, are well-sounding names, and easily pronounced; but it is not
until having sailed for weeks along small portions of their shores,
that one is thoroughly convinced what vast spaces on our immense world
these names imply.
From seeing the present state, it is impossible not to look forward
with high expectations to the future progress of nearly an entire
hemisphere. The march of improvement, consequent
on the introduction of Christianity throughout the South Sea, probably
stands by itself in the records of history. It is the more striking
when we remember that only sixty years since, Cook, whose excellent
judgment none will dispute, could foresee no prospect of a change. Yet
these changes have now been effected by the philanthropic spirit of the
British nation.
In the same quarter of the globe Australia is rising, or indeed may be
said to have risen, into a grand centre of civilisation, which, at some
not very remote period, will rule as empress over the southern
hemisphere. It is impossible for an Englishman to behold these distant
colonies without a high pride and satisfaction. To hoist the British
flag seems to draw with it as a certain consequence, wealth,
prosperity, and civilisation.
In conclusion it appears to me that nothing can be more improving to a
young naturalist than a journey in distant countries. It both sharpens
and partly allays that want and craving, which, as Sir J. Herschel
remarks, a man experiences although every corporeal sense be fully
satisfied. The excitement from the novelty of objects, and the chance
of success, stimulate him to increased activity. Moreover, as a number
of isolated facts soon become uninteresting, the habit of comparison
leads to generalisation. On the other hand, as the traveller stays but
a short time in each place, his descriptions must generally consist of
mere sketches, instead of detailed observations. Hence arises, as I
have found to my cost, a constant tendency to fill up the wide gaps of
knowledge by inaccurate and superficial hypotheses.
But I have too deeply enjoyed the voyage, not to recommend any
naturalist, although he must not expect to be so fortunate in his
companions as I have been, to take all chances, and to start, on
travels by land if possible, if otherwise, on a long voyage. He may
feel assured he will meet with no difficulties or dangers, excepting in
rare cases, nearly so bad as he beforehand anticipates. In a moral
point of view the effect ought to be to teach him good-humoured
patience, freedom from selfishness, the habit of acting for himself,
and of making the best of every occurrence. In short, he ought to
partake of the characteristic qualities of most sailors. Travelling
ought
also to teach him distrust; but at the same time he will discover how
many truly kind-hearted people there are, with whom he never before
had, or ever again will have any further communication, who yet are
ready to offer him the most disinterested assistance.
Ascension. Terns and noddies
List of Illustrations
H.M.S. _Beagle_ in Straits of Magellan. Mt. Sarmiento in the distance.
H.M.S. _Beagle_ under full sail, view from astern.
H.M.S. _Beagle_: Middle section fore and aft, upper deck, 1832.
Fernando Noronha.
Incrustation of shelly sand.
Diodon Maculatus (Distended and Contracted).
Pelagic Confervæ.
Catamaran (Bahia).
Botofogo Bay, Rio Janeiro.
Vampire Bat (Desmodus D’Orbigny).
Virgin Forest.
Cabbage Palm.
Mandioca or Cassava.
Rio Janeiro.
Darwin’s Papilio Feronia, 1833, now called Ageronia feronia, 1889.
Hydrochærus capybara or Water-hog.
Recado or Surcingle of Gaucho.
Halt at a Pulperia on the Pampas.
El Carmen, or Patagones, Rio Negro.
Brazilian whips.
Brazilian hobbles and spurs.
Bringing in a prisoner.
Irregular troops.
Skinning uji or water serpents.
Rhea Darwinii (Avestruz Petise).
Landing at Buenos Ayres.
Maté pots and bambillio.
Giant thistle of pampas.
Cynara Cardunculus or Cardoon.
Evening camp, Buenos Ayres.
Rozario.
Parana River.
Toxodon Platensis. (Found at Saladillo.)
Fossil tooth of horse. (From Bahia Blanca.)
Mylodon.
Head of Scissor-beak.
Rhynchops Nigra, or Scissor-beak.
Buenos Ayres bullock-waggons.
Fuegians and wigwams.
Opuntia Darwinii.
Raised beaches, Patagonia.
Ladies’ combs, banda oriental.
Condor (Sarcorhamphus gryphus).
Basaltic Glen, Santa Cruz.
Berkeley Sound, Falkland Islands.
York Minster (Bearing S. 66° east.)
Cape Horn.
Cape Horn (another view).
Bad weather, Magellan Straits.
Fuegian basket and bone weapons.
False Horn, Cape Horn.
Wollaston Island, Tierra del Fuego.
Patagonians from Cape Gregory.
Port Famine, Magellan.
Patagonian Bolas.
Patagonian Spurs and Pipe.
Cyttaria Darwinii.
Eyre Sound.
Glacier in Gulf of Penas.
Flora of Magellan.
Macrocystis Pyrifera, or Magellan Kelp.
Trochilus Forficatus.
Hacienda, condor, cactus, etc.
Chilian miner.
Cactus (Cereus Peruviana).
Cordilleras from Santiago de Chile.
Chilian spurs, stirrup, etc.
Old Church, Castro, Chiloe.
Inside Chonos Archipelago.
Gunnera Scabra, Chiloe.
Antuco Volcano, near Talcahuano.
Panoramic view of coast, Chiloe.
Inside Island of Chiloe. San Carlos.
Hide Bridge, Santiago de Chile.
Chilenos.
South American bit.
Bridge of the Incas, Uspallata Pass.
Lima and San Lorenzo.
Coquimbo, Chile.
Huacas, Peruvian pottery.
Testudo Abingdonii, Galapagos Islands.
Galapagos Archipelago.
Finches from Galapagos Archipelago.
Amblyrhynchus Cristatus.
Opuntia Galapageia.
Ava or Kava (Macropiper methysticum), Tahiti.
Eimeo and Barrier-Reef.
Fatahua Fall, Tahiti.
Tahitian.
Hippah, New Zealand.
Sydney, 1835.
Hobart Town and Mount Wellington.
Australian group of weapons and throwing sticks.
Inside an atoll, Keeling Island.
Whitsunday Island.
Barrier-reef, Bolabola.
Sections of barrier-reefs.
Section of coral-reef.
Section of coral-reef.
Bolabola Island.
Corals.
Birgos Latro, Keeling Island.
St. Louis, Mauritius.
St. Helena.
Cellular formation of volcanic bomb.
Cicada Homoptera.
Homeward bound.
Ascension. Terns and noddies.
Index
ABBOTT, Mr., on spiders, 36
Aborigines banished from Van Diemen’s Land, 475
of Australia, 430 to 458
Abrolhos Islands, 9, 14
Absence of trees in Pampas, 48
Aconcagua, volcano of, 269, 294, 312
Actinia, stinging species, 494
Africa, Southern part desert, yet supports large animals, 89
Ageronia feronia, 39
Agouti, habits of, 72
Ague common in Peru, 389
Albemarle Island, 401, 420
Allan, Dr., on Diodon, 14
on Holuthuriæ, 494
Alluvium, saliferous, in Peru, 367
stratified, in Andes, 333
Amblyrhynchus, 401, 411
Anas, species of, 210
Animalculæ. _See_ Infusoria
Antarctic islands, 263
Antipodes, 444
Ants at Keeling Island, 485
in Brazil, 36
Antuco volcano, 311
Apires, or miners 364
Aplysia, 6, 493
Apple-trees, 318
Aptenodytes demersa, 209
Araucanian Indians, 66
Areas of alternate movements in the Pacific and Indian oceans, 480
Armadilloes, habits of, 110
fossil animals allied to, 137, 164
Arqueros mines, 369
Arrow-heads, ancient, 109, 381
Ascension, 522, 538
Aspalax, blindness of, 53
Athene cunicularia, 73, 132
Atolls, 490, 495
Attagis, 98
Atwater, Mr., on the prairies, 124
Audubon, M., on smelling-power of carrion-hawks, 195
Australia, 459
Australian barrier, 499
group of weapons, 480
Ava (Macropiper methysticum), 428, 436
Azara on spiders, 39
on rain in La Plata, 49
on habits of carrion-hawks, 58
on range of carrion-hawks, 60
on a thunder-storm, 65
on ostrich-eggs, 95
on bows and arrows, 110
on new plants springing up, 125
on great droughts, 142
on hydrophobia, 378
BACHMAN, Mr., on carrion-hawks, 195
Bahia Blanca, 50, 70, 77 to 110
fossil tooth of horse from, 138
Bahia, Brazil, 11
scenery of, 526
Bajada, 136
Balbi on coral reefs, 499
Bald Head, Australia, 479
Ballenar, Chile, 373
Banda Oriental, 48, 152, 158, 186
Banks’s Hill, 221
Barking-bird, 307
Barrier-reef, Bolabola, 498
reefs, sections of, 500
Basaltic platform of Santa Cruz, 182
Bathurst, Australia, 470
Batrachian reptiles, 101
Bats, vampire, 22, 23
Bay of Islands, New Zealand, 444
Beads, hill of, 158
Beagle Channel, Tierra del Fuego, 230
Beech-trees, 251, 292
Beetles in brackish water, 22
on a fungus, 32
alive in sea, 168
at St. Julian, 180
dung-feeders, 520, 521
Behring’s Straits, fossils of, 140
Bell of Quillota, 270
Benchuca, 352
Berkeley Sound, 199, 214
Rev. J., on Confervæ, 15
on Cyttaria, 250
Berquelo river, 158
Bibron, M., 407
Bien te veo, 56
Birds of the Galapagos Archipelago, 405
tameness of, 424
Birgos latro, 492, 512
Bizcacha, habits of, 73, 130, 273
Blackheath, Australia, 466
Blackwall, Mr., on spiders, 171
Blindness of tucutuco, 53
Blue Mountains, 465
Body, frozen, 93, 263
Bolabola, barrier-reef, 498, 504
Bolas, manner of using, 46, 117
Bombs, volcanic, 524
Bones of the guanaco collected in certain spots, 177
fire made of, 205
recent in Pampas, 142
fossil, 86, 134, 137, 164, 182
Bory St. Vincent on frogs, 407
Boulders, 197, 262
Bramador, El, 358
Brazil, great area of granite, 12
Brazilian whips, etc., 75
Breaches in coral reefs, 502
Breakwater of seaweed, 253
Brewster, Sir D., on a calcareous deposit, 10
Bridge of hide, 334
of Incas, 357, 380, 394
Buckland, Dr., on fossils, 140
Buenos Ayres, 127
trading at, 111
evening camp, 128
bullock-waggons, 150
Buffon on American Animals, 183
Bug of Pampas, 352
Buildings, Indian, 381 to 383, 394
Bulimus on desert places, 371
Burchell, Mr., on food of quadrupeds, 91
on ostrich-eggs, 95
on perforated stones, 285
Butterflies, flocks of, 167
Butterfly producing clicking sound, 34
Button, Jemmy, 218
Byron’s account of fox of Falklands, 204
on an Indian killing his child, 228
CABBAGE PALM, 26
Cacti, 174, 278, 399
Cactornis, 405, 424
Cactus, Cereus Peruviana, 278
Calasoma on wing out at sea, 168
Calcareous casts of branches and roots of trees at King George’s Sound,
479
incrustations on rocks of Ascension, 9
Callao, 389, 391
Calodera, 132
Calomys bizcacha, 130
Camarhynchus, 405, 424
Camelidæ, fossil animal allied to, 182
Cancer salinus, 69
Canis antarcticus, 204
fulvipes, 287
Cape Horn, 222, 223
False Horn, 229, 243
of Good Hope, 91
Capybara, or carpincho, 40, 51, 182, 307
fossil allied to, 87
Caracara, or Carrancha, 57
Cardoon, beds of, 125, 157
Carizal, 371
Carmichael, Capt., 426
Carrion-hawks, 59, 126, 195
Casarita, 99
Cassava, 23
Castro, Chiloe, 296, 315
old church at, 291
Casuchas, 358
Catamaran, 18
Cathartes, 60, 195
Cats run wild, 123, 523
good to eat, 123
scratch trees, 144
cruelty to mice, 209
Cattle, effects of their grazing on the vegetation, 124
killed by great droughts, 142, 156
know each other, 155
curious breed of, 155
waste of, 158
wild at the Falkland Islands, 200, 203
Caucahue, 295
Cauquenes, hot springs of, 281
Causes of extinction of species among mammalia, 182
of discoloured sea, 15
Cavia Patagonica, 72
Cawa-Cawa, New Zealand, 456
Caylen, 298
Cervus campestris, 50
Ceryle Americana, 147
Chacao, Chiloe, 293
Chagos atolls, 508
Chalk-like mud, 494
Chamisso on drifted seeds and trees, 484, 491
on coral reefs, 496
Changes in vegetation of Pampas, 126
in vegetation of St. Helena, 519
Charles Island, 400, 420
Chatham Island, 399, 420
Cheese, salt required for, 68
Cheucau, 297, 307
Chile, 268, 271, 274
features of country, 270
Chilenos, 194, 337
Chilian miner, 277
spurs, stirrup, etc, 290
vegetation, 359
Chiloe, 291
old church at castro, 291
forests of, and climate, 292
inhabitants of, 292, 294
roads of, 293, 313, 314
Gunnera scabra, 310
Chionis alba, 98
Cholechel, conflict at, 109
Chonos Archipelago, 300, 304
climate of, 292
zoology of, 306
ornithology of, 307
Chupat, Rio, 110
Chuzo, 66
Cicada homoptera, 529
Cladonia, 387
Clearness of atmosphere within Andes, in Chile, 271
Climate of Tierra del Fuego and Falkland Islands, 257
Antarctic Islands, 263
change of, in Chile, 382
Galapagos, 397
Clouds of vapour after rain, 25
on Corcovado, 30
hanging low, 389
at sea, 429
Coleoptera in Tropics, 35
out at sea, 168
of St. Julian, 180
Colias edusa, flocks of, 168
Colnett, Capt., on spawn in sea, 17
on a marine lizard, 411
on transport of seeds, 418
Colonia del Sacramiento, 153
Colorado, Rio, 73
Compound animals, 211
Concepcion, Chile, 325
Conchalee, 362
Condor, habits of, 193, 196, 287
(Sarcorhamphus gryphus), 187
Confervæ, pelagic, 15
Conglomerate on the Ventana, 113
in Cordillera, 342
Conurus, 147
Convicts of Mauritius, 514
condition, in New South Wales, 473
Cook, Capt., on kelp, 253
Copiapó, river and valley of, 366, 370, 375, 385
town of, 374, 378
Coquimbo, 22, 365
Coral formations, 429, 502 to 509
stinging species of, 493
reefs, sections of, 502, 508
dead, 508
Corallines, 207
Corals, 507
Corcovado, clouds on, 30
volcano, 304
Cordillera, appearance of, 269, 292, 337
different productions on east and west side, 345
passage of, 334
structure of valleys, 335
rivers of, 338
geology of, 339, 354, 355
valley of Copiapó, 385
mountains, 435
Cormorant catching fish, 209
Corral, where animals are slaughtered at Buenos Ayres, 127
Corrientes, Cape, 168
Corrobery, or native Australian dance, 479
Corunda, 135
Coseguina, eruption of, 312, 376
Countries, unhealthy, 389
Couthouy, Mr., on coral-reefs, 504
Crabberies, 83
Crabs, hermit species of, 486
at St. Paul’s, 10
at Keeling Island, 492
Craters, number of, at the Galapagos Archipelago, 398
of Elevation, 515
Crisia, 211
Cruelty to animals, 162
Crustacea, pelagic, 171
Ctenomys Brasiliensis, 52
fossil species of, 86
Cucao, Chiloe, 315
Cuckoo-like habits of Molothrus, 55
Cudico, mission at, 320
Cuentas, Sierra de, 158
Cufre, 153
Cumbre of Cordillera, 358
Cuming, Mr., on shells, 416, 520
Cuttlefish, habits of, 7
Cuvier on Diodon, 14
Cynara cardunculus, 125
Cyttaria Darwinii, 250, 251
DACELO IAGOENSIS, 2
Dasypus, three species of, 100
Deer, 50, 139
Degradation of tertiary formations, 368
Deinornis, 455
Deserts, 371, 384
Desmodus, 22
Despoblado, valley of, 379
Dieffenbach, Dr., E., 2
on Auckland Island, 259, 464
Diodon, habits of, 13
Discoloured sea, 15
Diseases from miasma, 389, 464
Distribution of mammalia in America, 138
of animals on opposite sides of Cordillera, 348
of frogs, 407
of Fauna of Galapagos, 419
Dobrizhoffer on ostriches, 98
on a hail-storm, 122
Docks, imported, 455
Dogs, shepherd, 159
Dolichonyx oryzivorus, 404
D’Orbigny, Travels in South America, 81, 97, 125, 137, 159, 177
Doris, eggs of, 211
Dormidor, or horse-tamer, 160
Doubleday, Mr., on a noise made by a butterfly, 34
Drigg, lightning tubes at, 61
Droughts, great, in Pampas, 141
Dryness of St. Jago, 4
of winds in Tierra del Fuego, 245
of air in Cordillera, 348
Dubois, 407
Dung-feeding beetles, 520, 521
Dust, falling from atmosphere, 5
EARTHENWARE, fossil, 394
Earthquake, accompanied by an elevation of the coast, 331
accompanied by rain, 375
at Callao, 393
at Concepcion, 325
at Coquimbo, 366
at Keeling and Vanikoro, and Society Islands, 504
at Valdivia, 322
causes of, 330
effect of, on springs, 281
on bottom of sea, 327
effects of, on rocks, 274, 324
effects of, on sea, 323, 324, 325
effects of, on a river-bed, 381
line of vibration of, 328
on S.W. coast, 260
tossing fragments from the ground, 208
twisting movement of, 328
Eggs of Doris, 211
Ehrenberg, Prof., on Atlantic dust, 5
on infusoria in Pampas, 87, 137
in the open sea, 172
in Patagonia, 180
in Fuegian paint, 234
in coral mud, 494
in tuff at Ascension, 525
on phosphorescence of the sea, 172
on noises from a hill, 385
Eimeo, island of, 432; barrier-reef, 433
Elater, springing powers of, 32
Electricity of atmosphere within Andes, 348
Elephant, weight of, 91
Elevated shells, 89, 136, 180, 266, 313, 331, 367, 393
Elevation of coasts of Chile, 266, 313, 323, 331, 355, 367, 381
Bahia Blanca, 87
Pampas, 137
Patagonia, 180, 395
mountain-chains, 333
Cordillera, 338, 343, 354
Peru, 393
within human period, 395
fringing-reefs, 508
Entomology of the Galapagos Archipelago, 407, 418, 420
Brazil, 34
Patagonia, 180, 349
Tierra del Fuego, 253
Keeling Island, 485
St. Helena, 520
Entre Rios, geology of, 132
Epeira, habits of, 37 to 39
Erratic blocks, how transported, 262
absent in intertropical countries, 263
on plains of Santa Cruz, 196
of Tierra del Fuego, 262
Estancia, value of, 154
Extermination of species and races, 183, 462, 469, 476
Extinction of shells at St. Helena, 520
of species, causes of, 183
of man in New South Wales, 462, 476
Eyes of tucutuco and mole, 53
Eyre Sound, 260
FALCONER, Dr., on the Sivatherium, 155
on the Indians, 109
on rivers in Pampas, 112
on natural enclosures, 122
Falkland Islands, 199
absence of trees at, 48
carrion-hawks of, 57
wild cattle and horses of, 200
fox of, 204
climate of, 257
peat of, 305
tame birds at, 424
Fat, quantity eaten, 123
Fatahua fall, 436
Fear an acquired instinct, 426
Februa Hoffmanseggi, butterfly, 35
Fennel run wild, 125
Ferguson, Dr., on miasma, 390
Fernando Noronha, 2, 11, 173, 399
Ferns, tree, 259, 477
Fields of dead coral, 488
Fire, art of making, 205, 436
Fireflies, 31
Fish emitting harsh sound, 144
of Galapagos, 416
eating coral, 494
Flamingoes, 69
Fleas, 369
Floods after droughts, 142
clear after snow, 341
Flora of the Galapagos, 399, 418, 421
of Keeling Island, 483
of St. Helena, 523
Flustraceæ, 211
Forests, absence of, in La Plata, 47
of Tierra del Fuego, 220, 250, 305
of Chiloe, 250, 299, 305, 314
of Valdivia, 319, 322
of New Zealand, 436
of Australia, 445
Fossil Mammalia, 36, 134, 137, 164, 182
earthenware, 394
Fox of the Falkland Islands, 204
of Chiloe, 299
Freyrina, 372
Friendly Archipelago, 505
Fringing reefs, 501
Frogs, noises of, 30
bladders of, 409
and toads, not found on oceanic islands, 407
Frozen soil, 93, 257
Fruit-trees, southern limit of, 250
Fucus giganteus, 254
Fuegians, 151, 218 to 243
wigwams, 151, 224
basket and bone weapons, 230
Fulgurites, 62
Fungus, edible, 250
Furnarius, 99
GALAPAGOS ARCHIPELAGO, 398
natural history of, 403
marked relationship with America, 403
zoology of, 403, 419
finches from, 405
Gale of wind, 228, 300
Gallegos river, fossil bones at, 182
Gallinazo, 60
Gauchos, 46, 160
character of, 161
live on meat, 123
surcingle of, 46
Gavia mountain, 33
Gay, M., on floating islands, 283
on shells in brackish water, 22
Geese at the Falkland Islands, 210
Geographical distribution of American animals, 138, 349
of frogs, 407
of fauna of Galapagos, 419
Geology of Cordillera, 341, 355
of St. Jago, 6
of St. Paul, 8
of Brazil, 12
of Bahia Blanca, 86
of Pampas, 136
of Patagonia, 180, 190
Georgia, climate of, 263
Geospiza, 405, 420
Gill, Mr., on an upheaved river-bed, 382
Gillies, Dr., on the Cordillera, 345
Glaciers in Tierra del Fuego, 237, 260, 261
in lat. 46° 40′, 260
in Cordillera, 346
Glow-worms, 31
Goats destructive to vegetation at St. Helena, 520
bones of, 177
Goeree Roads, 230
Goître, 336
Gold-washing, 284
Good Success Bay, 214
Gossamer spider, 169
Gould, Mr., on the Calodera, 132
on birds of Galapagos, 404
Granite mountains, Tres Montes, 301
of Cordillera, 342
Graspus, 10
Gravel, how far transported, 113
of Patagonia, 78, 180
Graves of Indians, 179
Greenstone, fragments of, 274
Gregory, Cape, 245
Gryllus migratorius, 352
Guanaco, habits of, 175, 197
fossil allied genus, 182
Guantajaya, mines of, 387
Guardia del Monte, 124
Guasco, 367, 371, 375
Guasos of Chile, 275
Guava imported into Tahiti, 430
Guinea-fowl, 5, 523
Guitron, 279
Gunnera scabra, 298
Gypsum, great beds of, 342
in salt-lake, 68
in Patagonian tertiary beds, 180
at Iquique with salt, 388
at Lima with shells, 392
HACHETTE, M., on lightning-tubes, 62
Hacienda, condor, and cactus, 271
Hail-storm, 121
Hall, Captain Basil, on terraces of Coquimbo, 367
Hare, Varying, 47
Head, Captain, on thistle-beds, 125, 130
Height of snow-line on Cordillera, 259
Henslow, Prof., on potatoes, 304
on plants of Keeling Island, 483
Hermit crabs, 486
Hide bridge, 334
Hill emitting a noise, 385
Himantopus, 120
Hippah, New Zealand, 458
Hobart Town and Mount Wellington, 475
Hogoleu barrier-reef, 499
Holes made by a bird, 99
Holman on drifted seeds, 484
Holothuriæ feeding on coral, 494
Homeward bound, 531
Hooker, Sir J., on the Cardoon, 125
Dr. J. D., on the kelp, 253
on Galapageian plants, 418, 421
Horn, Cape, 223
Horner, Mr., on a calcareous deposit, 10
Horse, swimming powers of, 152
Horse, wild at the Falkland Islands, 202
fossil of extinct species of, 86, 138
Horse-fly, 180
Horsemanship of the Gauchos, 162, 206
Horses difficult to drive, 115
drop excrement on paths, 125
killed by great droughts, 141
multiplication of, 247
broken in, 160
Hot springs of Cauquenes, 281
Huacas, 394, 396
Humboldt on burnished rocks, 12
on the atmosphere in tropics, 33
on frozen soil, 93
on hybernation, 102
on potatoes, 304
on earthquakes and rain, 375
on miasma, 390, 463
Humming-birds of Rio de Janeiro, 33
of Chiloe, 289
Hurtado, 113
Hybernation of animals, 102
Hydrochærus capybara, 40, 51
Hydrophobia, 377
Hyla, 30
Hymenophallus, 34
IBIS MELANOPS, 175
Ice, prismatic structure of, 347
Icebergs, 197, 237, 260 to 267
Incas’ bridge, 357, 380, 394
Incrustations on coast rocks, 9, 12
Indian fossil remains, 395
Indians, attacks of, 66, 80, 136
antiquarian relics of, 48, 109
Araucanian, 66, 321
of the Pampas, 105
decrease in numbers of, 108
grave of, 179, 198
Patagonian, 245
perforated stones used by, 285
Valdivian, 321
powers of tracking, 350
ruins of houses of, 380, 384, 392
Infection, 463
Infusoria in dust in the Atlantic, 5
in the sea, 16, 168
in the Pampas, 87, 137
in Patagonia, 180
in white paint, 234
in coral mud, 494
at Ascension, 525
Insects first colonists of St. Paul’s rocks, 10
blown out to sea, 168
of Patagonia, 180, 349
of Tierra del Fuego, 253
of Galapagos, 403, 417, 419
of Keeling Island, 485
of St. Helena, 520
Instincts of birds, 96, 423
Iodine with salt at Iquique, 388
Iquique, 386
Iron, oxide of, on rocks, 12
Irregular troops, 85
Islands, oceanic, volcanic, 8
Antarctic, 263
floating, 283
Low, 429, 497
JACKSON, Col., on frozen snow, 347
Jaguar, habits of, 143
Jajuel, mines of, 276
James Island, 402, 420
Jemmy Button, 218, 233
Juan Fernandez, volcano of, 332
flora of, 418
KANGAROO-HUNTING, 469
Kater’s Peak, 224
Kauri pine, 454
Keeling Island, 481
inside an atoll, 481
flora of, 483
birds of, 485, 486
entomology of, 486
subsidence of, 504
Birgos latro, 512
Kelp, or seaweed, 253, 254
Kendall, Lieut., on a frozen body, 263
Kingfishers, 2, 147
King George’s Sound, 478
Kororadika, 447, 453
LABOURERS, condition of, in Chile, 285
Lagoon-islands, 429, 482, 489, 495
Lagostomus, 130
Lake, brackish, near Rio, 22
with floating islands, 283
formed during earthquake, 395
Lamarck on acquired blindness, 53
Lampyris, 31
Lancaster, Capt., on a sea-tree, 105
Land-shells, 371, 519, 520
Las Minas, 43
Lazo, 46, 160, 201
Leaves, 250
fossil, 477
Leeks in New Zealand, imported, 455
Lemuy Island, 295, 297
Lepus Magellanicus, 203
Lesson, M., on the scissor-beak, 147
on rabbit of the Falklands, 203
Lichen on loose sand, 387
Lichtenstein on ostriches, 96
Lightning storms, 63
tubes, 61
Lima, 389, 392
and San Lorenzo, 360
elevation of a river near, 383
Lime, changed by lava into crystalline rock, 6
Limnæa in brackish water, 2
Lion-ant, 470
Lizard, 102
marine species of, 407
Lizards, transport of, 404
Llama or guanaco, habits of, 175
Locusts, 351
Longevity of species in Mollusca, 87
Lorenzo, San, island of, 393
Low Archipelago, 429, 497
Luciano, story of, 117
Lumb, Mr., 158, 164
Lund, M., on antiquity of man, 382
Lund and Clausen on fossils of Brazil, 138, 183
Luxan, 130, 351
Luxuriant vegetation not necessary to support large animals, 89
Lycosa, 36
Lyell, Mr., on terraces of Coquimbo, 367
on longevity of Mollusca, 87
on change in vegetation, 126
on fossil horses’ teeth, 137
on flocks of butterflies, 168
on extinct mammals and ice-period, 184
on stones twisted by earthquakes, 329
on frozen snow, 347
on distribution of animals, 349
on subsidence in the Pacific, 498
MACCULLOCH on infection, 464
Macquarie river, 471
Macrauchenia, 86, 182
Macrocystis, 253
Madrina, or godmother of a troop of mules, 336
Magdalen channel, 255
Magellan, flora of, 265
H.M.S. _Beagle_ in Straits of, Beagle
Straits of, 229, 244
Port Famine, 246
kelp of, 267
Malays, 482
Malcolmson, Dr., on hail, 122
Maldiva atolls, 496, 505, 507
Maldonado, 41, 47, 61, 65, 145
Mammalia, fossil, 86, 134, 137, 164, 182, 183, 395
Man, antiquity of, 382
body frozen, 264
fossil remains of, 395
fear of, an acquired instinct, 427
extinction of races, 463, 476
Mandetiba, 20
Mandioca or cassava, 23, 27
Mare’s flesh eaten by troops, 107
Mares killed for their hides, 163
Mastodon, 134, 137
Maté pots and Bambillio, 118
Matter, granular, movements in, 104
Mauritius, 513
Maypu river, 338
Megalonyx, 86, 139
Megatherium, 86, 88, 139
Mendoza, 352
climate of, 345
Mercedes on the Rio Negro, 156
Mexico, elevation of, 139
Miasmata, 389, 463
Mice inhabit sterile places, 384
number of, in America, 51
how transported, 307, 404
different on opposite sides of Andes, 348
of the Galapagos, 403
of Ascension, 523
Millepora, 493
Mills for grinding ores, 284
Mimosæ, 26
Mimus, 56, 420, 424
Miners, condition of, 277, 283, 362, 370
Mines, 277, 365, 369
how discovered, 340
Miranda, Commandant, 105
Missionaries at New Zealand, 446
Mitchell, Sir T., on valleys of Australia, 466
Mocking-bird, 56, 420, 424
Molina omits description of certain birds, 289
Molothrus, habits of, 54
Monkeys with prehensile tails, 29
Monte Video, 41, 151, 152
Moresby, Capt., on a great crab, 493
on coral-reefs, 509
Mount Sarmiento, 247, 256
Tarn, 249
Victoria, 47
Mountains, elevation of, 333
Movements in granular matter, 104
Mud, chalk-like, 494
disturbed by earthquake, 328
Mules, 336
Muniz, Signor, on niata cattle, 155
Murray, Mr., on spiders, 170
Mylodon, 86, 140, 164
Myopotamus Coypus, 306
NARBOROUGH ISLAND, 401
Negress with goître, 336
Negro, Rio, 65, 192
lieutenant, 78
Nepean river, 444
New Caledonia, reef of, 499, 501, 507
New Zealand, 444
Niata cattle, 155
Noises from a hill, 385
Noses, ceremony of pressing, 451
Nothura, 47
Notopod, crustacean, 171
Nulliporæ, incrustations like, 9
protecting reefs, 529
OCTOPUS, habits of, 7
Oily coating on sea, 17
Olfersia, 10
Opetiorhynchus, 425
Opuntia, 278
Darwinii, 175
Galapageia, 427
Orange-trees self-sown, 126
Ores, gold, 284
Ornithology of Galapagos, 404, 420
Ornithorhynchus, 470
Osorno, volcano of, 292, 294, 312
Ostrich, habits of, 44, 94
Ostrich’s eggs, 119
Otaheite, 429
Otter, 307
Ova in sea, 17
Oven-bird, 99
Owen, Capt., on a drought in Africa, 141
Professor, on the Capybara, 51
fossil quadrupeds, 86-89, 137
nostrils of the Gallinazo, 195
Owl of Pampas, 73, 132
of Galapagos Islands, 406
Oxyurus, 252, 308
Oysters, gigantic, 180
PAINT, white, 234
Pallas on Siberia, 69
Palm-trees in La Plata, 48
south limit of, 260
in Chile, 272
Palms absent at Galapagos, 400
Pampas, halt at a pulperia on the, 64
number of embedded remains in, 165
southern limit of, 80
changes in, 130
giant thistle of, 125
not quite level, 134, 137, 153
geology of, 136, 165
view of, from the Andes, 348
Pan de Azucar, 47
Papilio feronia, 34, 39
Parana, Rio, 136, 148, 156
River, 133
islands in, 143
Parish, Sir W., on the great drought, 142
Park, Mungo, on eating salt, 116
Parrots, 147, 259
Partridges, 47
Pas, fortresss of New Zealand, 445
Passes in Cordillera, 356
Pasture altered from grazing of cattle, 124
Patagones, 65
Patagonia, geology of, 190, 349
birds of, 93
zoology of, 174, 180, 189
raised beaches, 182
Patagonian bolas, etc, 248, 249
Patagonians, Cape Gregory, 245
Paypote ravine, 383
Peach-trees self-sown, 126
Peat, formation of, 305
Pebbles perforated, 158, 285
transported in roots of trees, 491
Pelagic animals in southern ocean, 172
Penas, glacier in Gulf of, 261
Penguin, habits of, 209
Pepsis, habits of, 36
Pernambuco, reef of, 529
Pernety on hill of ruins, 208
on tame birds, 425
Peru, 386, 396
dry valleys of, 382, 386
Peruvian pottery, 396
Petrels, habits of, 309
Peuquenes, pass of, 341
Phonolite at Fernando Noronha, 11
Phosphorescence of the sea, 172
of land insects and sea animals, 31
of a coralline, 213
Phryniscus, 101
Pine of New Zealand, 454
Plains at foot of Andes in Chile, 282, 337
almost horizontal near St. Fé, 135
Planariæ, terrestrial species of, 28
Plants of the Galapagos, 402, 418, 421
of Keeling island, 483
of St. Helena, 517
Plants, fossil, in Australia, 477
Plata, R., 40
thunderstorms of, 65
Plover, long-legged, 120
Polished rocks, Brazil, 12
Polyborus chimango, 58, 209
Braziliensis, 57
Novæ Zelandiæ, 59
Ponsonby Sound, 229, 233, 239, 241
Porpoises, 40
Port Desire, 97, 174
river of, 112, 178
St. Julian, 180
Famine, 246, 247
Jackson, 459
Portillo Pass, 335 to 352
Porto Praya, 2
Potato, wild, 304
Potrero Seco, 375
Prairies, vegetation of, 124
Prévost, M., on cuckoos, 55
Priestley, Dr., on lightning-tubes, 61
Prisoner, bringing in a, 84
Procellaria gigantea, habits of, 309
Proctotretus, 102
Proteus, blindness of, 53
Protococcus nivalis, 345
Pteroptochos, two species of, 288
species of, 297, 307
Puenta del Inca, 356, 380
Puffinuria Berardii, 309
Puffinus cinereus, 309
Puma, habits of, 144, 193, 287
flesh of, 122
Puna, or short respiration, 344
Punta Alta, Bahia Blanca, 83
Gorda, 136, 380
Huantamó, 317
Pyrophorus luminosus, 32
QUADRUPEDS, fossil, 83, 136, 141, 164, 182
large, do not require luxuriant vegetation, 89
weight of, 91
Quartz of the Ventana, 122
of Tapalguen, 122
of Falkland Island, 207
Quedius, 10
Quellaypo volcano, 312
Quilimari, 362
Quillota, valley of, 270
Quinchao Island, 296
Quintero, 270
Quiriquina Island, 324
Quoy and Gaimard on stinging corals, 493
on coral-reefs, 505
RABBIT, wild, at the Falkland Islands, 203
Rain at Coquimbo, 361, 371, 372
at Rio, 30
effects on vegetation, 361
and earthquakes, 375
in Chile, formerly more abundant, 381
in Peru, 389, 390
Rana Mascariensis, 407
Rat, only aboriginal animal of New Zealand, 455
Rats at Galapagos, 403
at Keeling Island, 485
at Ascension, 523
Rattlesnake, species with allied habit, 100
Red snow, 345
Reduvius, 352
Reef at Pernambuco of sandstone, 529
Reefs of coral, 495 to 512
barrier, 498, 504
fringing, 501
Reeks, Mr., analysis of salt, 68
bones, 164
salt and shells, 394
Remains, human, elevated, 394
Remedies of the Gauchos, 135
Rengger on the horse, 247
Reptiles absent in Tierra del Fuego, 252
at Galapagos, 407
Respiration difficult in Andes, 344
Retrospect, 51
Revolutions at Buenos Ayres, 149
Rhea Darwinii (Avestruz Petise), 110
Rhinoceroses live in desert countries, 92
frozen, 93, 264
Rhynchops nigra, 145, 146
Richardson, Dr., on mice of North America, 404
on frozen soil, 92, 263
on eating fat, 123
on geographical distribution, 139
on polished rocks, 267
Rimsky atoll, 496
Rio de Janeiro, 19 to 39
Botofogo Bay, 19
Plata, 40
Negro, 65, 192
Colorado, 73
Sauce, 112
Salado, 124
S. Cruz, 187
River-bed, arched, 383
River-courses dry in America, 113
Rivers, power of, in wearing channels, 191, 339
Rocks burnished with ferruginous matter, 12
Rodents, number of, in America, 51, 189
fossil species of, 87
Rolor, General, 149
Rosas, General, 73, 116, 149
Rozario, 129, 133, 147, 153
Ruins of Callao, 391
of Indian buildings in Cordillera, 380, 382
SALADO, RIO, 124
Saladillo river, 134
Salinas at the Galapagos Archipelago, 402
in Patagonia, 66, 177
Saline efflorescences, 81
Salt with vegetable food, 116
superficial crust of, 388
with elevated shells, 393
Salt-lakes, 68, 177, 402
San Carlos, 313
Nicolas, 133, 147
Felipe, 276
Pedro, 299
Pedro, forests of, 299
Lorenzo Island, 393
Sand-dunes, 78
Sand, hot from sun’s rays, at Galapagos Archipelago, 403
noise from friction of, 385
Sandstone of New South Wales, 465
reef of, 529
Sandwich Archipelago, no frogs at, 407
Land, 263
Santa Cruz, river of, 187
Santiago, Chile, 282
Sarmiento, Mount, 247, 256
Sauce, Rio, 112, 371
Saurophagus sulphureus, 55
Scarus eating corals, 494
Scelidotherium, 86
Scenery of Andes, 335 to 341
Scissor-beak, habits of, 145, 146
Scissor-tail, 147
Scoresby, Mr., on effects of snow on rocks, 340
Scorpions, cannibals, 165
Scrope, Mr., on earthquakes, 376
Scytalopus, 252, 308
Sea, open, inhabitants of, 172
phosphorescence of, 172
explosions in, 327
Sea-pen, habits of, 104, 212
Seals, number of, 303
Seaweed, growth of, 253
Seeds transported by sea, 418, 484
Serpulæ, 529
Sertularia, protecting reef, 494
Shark killed by Diodon, 14
Shaw, Dr., on lion’s flesh, 122
Sheep, infected, 464
Shelley, lines on Mont Blanc, 178
Shells, land, in great numbers, 368
elevated, 86, 137, 180, 343, 367, 395
tropical forms of, far south, 258
fossil, of Cordillera, 343
decomposition of, with salt, 393
of Galapagos, 416
at St. Helena, 519
Shepherd’s dogs, 159
Shingle-bed of Patagonia, 78, 189
Shongi, New Zealand chief, 447
Siberia compared with Patagonia, 69
zoology of, related to North America, 140
Siberian animals, how preserved in ice, 264
food necessary during their existence, 93, 96
Sierra de la Ventana, 112
Tapalguen, 119
Silicified trees, 354, 376
Silurian formations at Falkland Islands, 207
Silurus, habits of, 144
Sivatherium, 155
Skunks, 83
Slavery, 20, 25, 530
Smelling power of carrion-hawks, 195
Smith, Dr. Andrew, on the support of large quadrupeds, 88
on perforated pebbles, 158
Snake, venomous, 100
Snow, effects of, on rocks, 340
prismatic structure of, 347
red, 345
Snow-line on Cordillera, 259, 358, 347
Socêgo, 23
Society, state of, in La Plata, 42, 165
state of, in Australia, 471, 474
Archipelago, 440
volcanic phenomena at, 505, 510
Soda, nitrate of, 388
sulphate of, 81
Soil, frozen, 92, 263
South American bit, 338
Spawn on surface of sea, 17
Species, distribution of, 136, 391
extinction of, 182
Spiders, habits of, 37 to 39
gossamer, 169
killed by and killing wasps, 37 to 39
on Keeling Island, 485
on St. Paul’s, 10
Spurs of Guaso, 275
Springs, hot, 281
Stevenson, Mr., on growth of seaweed, 253
St. Helena, 517
Jago, C. Verds, 1
unhealthiness of, 390
Paul’s rocks, 8
Fé, 135
Maria, elevated, 333, 338
introduction of spirits into, 439
Louis, Mauritius, 513
Stinging animals, 493
Stones perforated, 158, 285
transported in roots, 490
Storm, 223, 300
in Cordillera, 338, 374
Streams of stones at Falkland Islands, 207
Strongylus, 34
Struthio rhea, 44, 94
Darwinii, 97
Strzelecki, Count, 476
Suadiva atoll, 496
Subsidence of coral-reefs, 495 to 512
of Patagonia, 180
of Cordillera, 343, 355
of Coasts of Chile, 354
cause of distinctness in Tertiary epochs, 367
of coast of Peru, 379
of Keeling Island, 496, 504
of Vanikoro, 504
of coral-reefs great in amount, 509
Sulphate of lime, 69, 180, 386
soda with common salt, 69, 81, 386
soda incrusting the ground, 81
Swainson, Mr., on cuckoos, 54
Sydney, 459
TABANUS, 180
Tahiti (Otaheite), 429
three zones of fertility, 432
Fatahua fall, 436
Christianity in, 437, 441
Tahitian, 438
Talcahuano, 311, 324
Tambillos, Ruinas de, 380
Tameness of birds, 425
Tandeel, pumas at, 287
Tapacolo and Turco, 288
Tapalguen, Sierra, flat hills of quartz, 122
Tarn, Mount, 249
Tasmania, 474
Tattooing, 430, 439
Temperance of the Tahitians, 438
Temperature of Tierra del Fuego and Falkland Islands, 244
of Galapagos, 399, 403
Tercero, Rio, fossils in banks of, 134
Terraces in valleys of Cordillera, 337
of Patagonia, 181, 190
of Coquimbo, 367
Tertiary formations of the Pampas, 86, 136, 165
of Patagonia, 180, 349
in Chile, epochs of, 368
Teru-tero, habits of, 120
Testudo, two species of, 420
Abingdonii, 397
nigra, habits of, 408
Theory of lagoon-islands, 499
Theristicus melanops, 175
Thistle beds, 125, 130, 157
Thunder-storms, 63
Ti, liliaceous plant, 437
Tierra del Fuego, 215 to 257
climate and vegetation of, 250, 257
zoology of, 251
entomology of, 253
Tinamus rufescens, 119
Tinochorus rumicivorus, 98
Toad, habits of, 101
not found in oceanic islands, 407
Torrents in Cordillera, 338, 343
Tortoise, habits of, 408, 420
Toxodon, 86, 134, 137, 164
Transparency of air in Andes, 358
in St. Jago, 4
Transport of boulders, 190, 262
of fragments of rock on banks of the St. Cruz river, 190
of seeds, 418, 484
of stones in roots of trees, 491
Travertin with leaves of trees, Van Diemen’s Land, 479
Tree-ferns, 478
southern limits of, 258
Trees, absence of, in Pampas, 48
time required to rot, 322
silicified, vertical, 376
size of, 377
floating, transport stones, 490
Tres Montes, 301
Trichodesmium, 15
Trigonocephalus, 100
Tristan d’Acunha, 426, 485
Trochilus forficatus, 268
Tropical scenery, 526
Tschudi, M., on subsidence, 393
Tubes, siliceous, formed by lightning, 61
Tucutuco, habits of, 52
fossil species of, 87
Tuff, craters of, 398
infusoria in, 525
Tupungato, volcano of, 347
Turco, El, 288
Turkey buzzard, 60, 192, 303
Turtle, manner of catching, 488
Type of organisation in Galapagos Islands, American, 423
Types of organisation in different countries, constant, 182
Tyrannus savana, 147
ULLOA on hydrophobia, 377
on Indian buildings, 380
Unanùe, Dr., on hydrophobia, 377
Uruguay, Rio, 147, 152
not crossed by the Bizcacha, 131
Uspallata range and pass, 353
VACAS, RIO, 355
Valdivia, 318
forests of, 319, 322
Valley of St. Cruz, how excavated, 190
dry, at Copiapó, 380
Valleys, excavation of, in Chile, 343, 383
of New South Wales, 46
in Cordillera, 343
of Tahiti, 437, 439
Valparaiso, 268, 335
Vampire bat, 22, 23
Van Diemen’s Land, 474
Vanellus cayanus, 120
Vanessa, flocks of, 168
Vanikoro, 500, 504
Vapour from forests, 25
Vegetation of St. Helena, changes of, 519
luxuriant, not necessary to support large animals, 89
on opposite sides of Cordillera, 349
Ventana, Sierra, 71, 112
Verbena melindres, 42
Vilipilli, 315
Villa Vicencio, 353
Villarica volcano, 332
Virgin forest, 25
Virgularia Patagonica, 104
Volcanic bombs, 524
cellular formation of, 524
islands, 8
phenomena, 331
Volcanoes near Chiloe, 294, 300, 312, 332
their presence determined by elevation or subsidence, 496
Vultur aura, 60, 192, 303
WADERS, first colonists of distant islands, 405
Waimate, New Zealand, 452
Waiomio, 456
Walckenaer on spiders, 39
Walleechu tree, 71
Wasps preying on spiders and killed by, 37 to 39
Water-hog (Hydrochærus capybara), 51
Water-serpents, 103
Water sold at Iquique, 386
Water, fresh, floating on salt, 41, 487
Waterhouse, Mr., on Rodents, 51, 485
on the niata ox, 156
on the insects of Tierra del Fuego, 253
of Galapagos, 406, 417
on the terrestrial mammals of Galapagos, 403
Waves caused by fall of ice, 237, 260
from earthquakes, 326, 330
Weather, connection with earthquakes, 375
Weatherboard, N.S. Wales, 465
Weeds in New Zealand, imported, 455
Weight of large quadrupeds, 88
Wellington, Mount, 477
Wells, ebbing and flowing, 487
at Iquique, 388
West Indies, banks of sediment, 468
zoology of, 143
coral-reefs of, 502, 510
Whales, oil from, 17
leaping out of water, 236
White, Mr., on spiders, 36
Whitsunday Island, 495, 497
Wigwam cove, 223, 228
Wigwams of Fuegians, 151, 224
Williams, Rev. Mr., on infectious disorders, 452, 463
Winds, dry, in Tierra del Fuego, 245
at the Cape Verds, 3
on Cordillera, 345
cold, on Cordillera, 384
Winter’s Bark, 250, 299
Wolf at the Falklands, 204
Wollaston Island, 224, 244
Wood, Captain, on the Agouti, 72
Woollya, 239
YAQUIL gold mines, 283
Yeso, Valle del, 341
York Minster, 215, 227, 241, 294
ZONOTRICHIA, 54
Zoological provinces of N. and S. America, 140
Zoology of Galapagos, 403
of Tierra del Fuego, 251
of Chonos Islands, 306
of Keeling Island, 485
of St. Helena, 520
Zoophytes, 104, 211
at Falkland Islands, 210
Zorillo, or skunk, 83