The Voyage of the Beagle - The Original Classic Edition. Darwin Charles

92. INSIDE AN ATOLL, KEELING ISLAND.

       PLATE 93. WHITSUNDAY ISLAND. PLATE 94. BARRIER-REEF, BOLABOLA. PLATE 95. SECTIONS OF BARRIER-REEFS. PLATE 96. SECTION OF CORAL-REEF. PLATE 97. SECTION OF CORAL-REEF. PLATE 98. BOLABOLA ISLAND.

       PLATE 99. CORALS.

       PLATE 100. BIRGOS LATRO, KEELING ISLAND.

       PLATE 101. ST. LOUIS, MAURITIUS.

       PLATE 102. ST. HELENA.

       PLATE 103. CELLULAR FORMATION OF VOLCANIC BOMB.

       PLATE 104. CICADA HOMOPTERA.

       PLATE 105. HOMEWARD BOUND.

       PLATE 106. ASCENSION. TERNS AND NODDIES.

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       PLATE 107. MAP OF SOUTH AMERICA.

       PLATE 108. MAP OF THE WORLD, SHOWING THE TRACK OF H.M.S. "BEAGLE."

       ...

       (PLATE 2. H.M.S. "BEAGLE": MIDDLE SECTION FORE AND AFT, UPPER DECK, 1832.)

       (PLATE 3. FERNANDO NORONHA.)

       JOURNAL.

       CHAPTER I.

       Porto Praya. Ribeira Grande.

       Atmospheric Dust with Infusoria. Habits of a Sea-slug and Cuttlefish. St. Paul's Rocks, non-volcanic.

       Singular Incrustations.

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       Insects the first Colonists of Islands.

       Fernando Noronha. Bahia.

       Burnished Rocks. Habits of a Diodon.

       Pelagic Confervae and Infusoria. Causes of discoloured Sea.

       ST. JAGO--CAPE DE VERD ISLANDS.

       After having been twice driven back by heavy south-western gales, Her Majesty's ship "Beagle," a ten-gun brig, under the command of Captain Fitz Roy, R.N., sailed from Devonport on the 27th of December, 1831. The object of the expedition was to complete the survey of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, commenced under Captain King in 1826 to 1830--to survey the shores of Chile, Peru, and of some islands in the Pacific--and to carry a chain of chronometrical measurements round the World. On the 6th of January we reached Teneriffe, but were prevented landing, by fears of our bringing the cholera: the next morning we saw the sun rise behind the rugged outline of the Grand Canary Island, and suddenly illumine the Peak

       of Teneriffe, whilst the lower parts were veiled in fleecy clouds. This was the first of many delightful days never to be forgotten. On the 16th of January 1832 we anchored at Porto Praya, in St. Jago, the chief island of the Cape de Verd archipelago.

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       The neighbourhood of Porto Praya, viewed from the sea, wears a

       desolate aspect. The volcanic fires of a past age, and the

       scorching heat of a tropical sun, have in most places rendered the soil unfit for vegetation. The country rises in successive steps of table-land, interspersed with some truncate conical hills, and the horizon is bounded by an irregular chain of more lofty mountains. The scene, as beheld through the hazy atmosphere of this climate, is one of great interest; if, indeed, a person, fresh from sea, and who has just walked, for the first time, in a grove of cocoa-nut trees, can be a judge of anything but his own happiness. The island would generally be considered as very uninteresting, but to any one accustomed only to an English landscape, the novel aspect of an utterly sterile land possesses a grandeur which more vegetation might spoil. A single green leaf can scarcely be discovered over wide tracts of the lava plains; yet flocks of goats, together with

       a few cows, contrive to exist. It rains very seldom, but during a short portion of the year heavy torrents fall, and immediately afterwards a light vegetation springs out of every crevice. This

       soon withers; and upon such naturally formed hay the animals live. It had not now rained for an entire year. When the island was discovered, the immediate neighbourhood of Porto Praya was clothed with trees (1/1. I state this on the authority of Dr. E.

       Dieffenbach, in his German translation of the first edition of this Journal.), the reckless destruction of which has caused here, as at St. Helena, and at some of the Canary islands, almost entire sterility. The broad, flat-bottomed valleys, many of which serve during a few days only in the season as watercourses, are clothed with thickets of leafless bushes. Few living creatures inhabit

       these valleys. The commonest bird is a kingfisher (Dacelo

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       Iagoensis), which tamely sits on the branches of the castor-oil plant, and thence darts on grasshoppers and lizards. It is brightly coloured, but not so beautiful as the European species: in its

       flight, manners, and place of habitation, which is generally in the

       driest valley, there is also a wide difference.

       One day, two of the officers and myself rode to Ribeira Grande, a village a few miles eastward of Porto Praya. Until we reached the valley of St. Martin, the country presented its usual dull brown appearance; but here, a very small rill of water produces a most refreshing margin of luxuriant vegetation. In the course of an hour we arrived at Ribeira Grande, and were surprised at the sight of a large ruined fort and cathedral. This little town, before its

       harbour was filled up, was the principal place in the island: it

       now presents a melancholy, but very picturesque appearance. Having procured a black Padre for a guide, and a Spaniard who had served

       in the Peninsular war as an interpreter, we visited a collection of buildings, of which an ancient church formed the principal part. It is here the governors and captain-generals of the islands have been

       buried. Some of the tombstones recorded dates of the sixteenth

       century. (1/2. The Cape de Verd Islands were discovered in 1449. There was a tombstone of a bishop with the date of 1571; and a crest of a hand and dagger, dated 1497.) The heraldic ornaments were the only things in this retired place that reminded us of Europe. The church or chapel formed one side of a quadrangle, in the middle of which a large clump of bananas were growing. On another side was a hospital, containing about a dozen

       miserable-looking inmates.

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       We returned to the VAanda to eat our dinners. A considerable number

       of men, women, and children, all as black as jet, collected to

       watch us. Our companions were extremely merry; and everything we

       said or did was followed by their hearty laughter. Before leaving the town we visited the cathedral. It does not appear so rich as the smaller church, but boasts of a little organ, which sent forth

       singularly inharmonious cries. We presented the black priest with a few shillings, and the Spaniard, patting him on the head, said,

       with much candour, he thought his colour made no great difference. We then returned, as fast as the ponies would go, to Porto Praya.

       Another day we rode to the village of St. Domingo, situated near the centre of the island. On a small plain which we crossed, a few stunted acacias were growing; their tops had been bent by the

       steady trade-wind, in a singular manner--some of them even at right angles to their trunks. The direction of the branches was exactly north-east by north, and south-west by south, and these natural vanes must indicate the prevailing direction of the force of the

       trade-wind. The travelling had made so little impression on the barren soil, that we here missed our track, and took that to Fuentes. This we did not find out till we arrived there; and we were afterwards glad of our mistake. Fuentes is a pretty village, with a small stream; and everything appeared to prosper well,

       excepting, indeed, that which ought to do so most--its inhabitants. The black children, completely naked, and looking very wretched, were carrying bundles of firewood half as big as their own bodies.

       Near Fuentes we saw a large flock of guinea-fowl--probably fifty or sixty in number. They were extremely wary, and could not be

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