Search Results - The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online

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A589 Book: Armstrong, Patrick. 1992. Darwin's desolate islands: A naturalist in the Falklands, 1833 and 1834. Chippenham: Picton Publishing. Text PDF

(see page 7). From the scribbled jottings made in his note-books during the early months of the voyage of HMS Beagle, to the published works of the final year or two of his life one can find comparisons of the organisms of one locality with those of another, together with speculations as to the reasons for similarities and differences. Geographical distributions were to form an important theme in On the Origin of Species, and indeed two out of fourteen chapters of that work were devoted to the

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A589 Book: Armstrong, Patrick. 1992. Darwin's desolate islands: A naturalist in the Falklands, 1833 and 1834. Chippenham: Picton Publishing. Text PDF

he wrote this Darwin was not yet a convinced evolutionist. But by the end of the voyage, Charles Darwin seems to have been entertaining the possibility of instability, a possibility raised, but only to be immediately dismissed by Charles Lyell in Principles of Geology (Vol II, pp174, 179), a copy of which, as we have seen, Darwin had with him. As the Beagle skimmed her way northwards the length of the Atlantic towards the end of the voyage, and Charles thought over the material he had garnered

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A589 Book: Armstrong, Patrick. 1992. Darwin's desolate islands: A naturalist in the Falklands, 1833 and 1834. Chippenham: Picton Publishing. Text PDF

time on the Beagle interested in animals' instinctive behaviour. Many of the same ideas the comparison with the Pampas, the concept of reversion to an earlier type, the notion of one race or sub-breed of an animal being derived from another, and the idea of that change in form was imposed by the environment all [page] 11

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A589 Book: Armstrong, Patrick. 1992. Darwin's desolate islands: A naturalist in the Falklands, 1833 and 1834. Chippenham: Picton Publishing. Text PDF

relating to the Falklands ,1 and his collection of plants from the archipelago, that fuelled his interesting correspondence with Hooker about southern hemisphere plant distributions. Darwin's predictions concerning the human occupance of the Falklands As regards the human settlement of the Falklands, Darwin was extremely far-seeing, although his views may have been partly based on discussions he had with Captain FitzRoy and the other officers aboard the Beagle. A couple of passages in letters to

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A589 Book: Armstrong, Patrick. 1992. Darwin's desolate islands: A naturalist in the Falklands, 1833 and 1834. Chippenham: Picton Publishing. Text PDF

banished from that half of East Falkland which lies East of the head of Salvador Bay and Berkeley Sound; and it cannot, I think be doubted, that as these islands are now becoming colonized, before the paper is decayed on which this animal has been figured, it will be ranked among those species which have perished from the face of the earth. (Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle, vol. II, page 10, based on notes in Zoological Diary See Figure 5.2) How right he was. The Falklands fox was extremely

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A589 Book: Armstrong, Patrick. 1992. Darwin's desolate islands: A naturalist in the Falklands, 1833 and 1834. Chippenham: Picton Publishing. Text PDF

and curate of St Mary the Less. He was an enthusiastic teacher, and lifelong friend of Darwin. Several notes written by Darwin testify to the fact that Henslow carefully instructed him in the collection, labelling and preservation of specimens. 19 See K G V Smith, 1987, note 7, above. 20 Syms Covington (1816? 1861). initially fiddler and boy to poop cabin , he became Darwin's servant on the Beagle in 1833, and was maintained by him as a servant, secretary and assistant for the remainder of the

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A589 Book: Armstrong, Patrick. 1992. Darwin's desolate islands: A naturalist in the Falklands, 1833 and 1834. Chippenham: Picton Publishing. Text PDF

At my own table I have seen it drank by the officers without their detecting the difference: yet the only tea I used at other times was the best that could be obtained in Rio de Janeiro. The modern scientific name for the Falklands tea plant or teaberry is Myrteola nummularia. 6 Fachine, Chiliotrichum diffusum, is another possibility. 7 The name, Adventure was chosen as it was the name of the sister-ship of the Beagle on the first voyage to South America, under Captain King. (See also page 32

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A589 Book: Armstrong, Patrick. 1992. Darwin's desolate islands: A naturalist in the Falklands, 1833 and 1834. Chippenham: Picton Publishing. Text PDF

4 R J Aidie and M E Greenway, 1972 Geological Map of the Falkland Islands (East Sheet), Directorate of Overseas Surveys, London. 5 The name Desolation Island was also used for both Heard Island and Kerguelen by sealers, but Brisbane never had any connection with these Indian Ocean peri-antarctic islands. Chapter 5 1 F J Sulloway, 1985, Darwin's early intellectual development: an overview of the Beagle voyage (1831 1836), in: D Kohn (ed) The Darwinian Heritage, Princeton University Press, 121

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A591 Pamphlet: Armstrong, Patrick. 1992. Charles Darwin's last island: Terceira, Azores, 1836. Geowest no. 27. Text Image

, Darwin, would surely have said On the next day rather than Another day , and in any case his account of the day on which Praia was visited ends with the evening departure of the Beagle from Terceira. As the captain's log shows very clearly that the ship sailed on 22 September, we can assume that it was on that day (Thursday) that Darwin visited the north-east of the island, including the town of Praia. The only other excursion of any length on which Darwin went during the Terceira sojourn was to

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A591 Pamphlet: Armstrong, Patrick. 1992. Charles Darwin's last island: Terceira, Azores, 1836. Geowest no. 27. Text Image

Eastward [from Mt Brasil], there is [sic] outlying islands some rocks which appear of a similar nature, but only a small segment of the crater now remains. He was referring to the Ilh us das Cabras, two steep islets, all that remains of a volcanic cone after marine attack, five kilometers due east from Monte Brasil. Darwin would have passed within a little over a kilometre of the islands during his ride eastwards along the coast towards Praia, and the Beagle would also have passed quite close to the

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A591 Pamphlet: Armstrong, Patrick. 1992. Charles Darwin's last island: Terceira, Azores, 1836. Geowest no. 27. Text Image

stay on Terceira. The three accounts of the site (in the Geological Diary, the general Diary or Journal, and chapter 2 of Volcanic Islands) illustrate well his method of working. They provide examples of careful observation, using a range of senses (feeling, smell and even taste as well as sight), his characteristic comparative treatment, and his attempts at explanation and search for pattern. Darwin frequently reworked his material, both on the Beagle and in later life, adding facts that came to

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A591 Pamphlet: Armstrong, Patrick. 1992. Charles Darwin's last island: Terceira, Azores, 1836. Geowest no. 27. Text Image

appeared weighed down by beautiful fruit,- the very emblem of fertility.1 There were other crops that he noticed during the Azores visit. The north-east of the island was particularly well cultivated and produced a large quantity of fine wheat . He also mentions vineyards. S o Miguel, that the Beagle visited a day or so after leaving Terceira, produced oranges. A large fleet of ships exported numberless fruit to England. Although several hundred vessels were loaded with oranges these trees on neither

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A591 Pamphlet: Armstrong, Patrick. 1992. Charles Darwin's last island: Terceira, Azores, 1836. Geowest no. 27. Text Image

officers on the Beagle, support for Dom Pedro, even to the extent of destroying convents, might have been quite strong. After his years amongst them, the whiggish young Darwin might have absorbed some of these values. This perhaps explains Darwin's almost eulogistic reference to the present right royal honourable family . But to be fair, some implied criticism is incorporated in the suggestion that they had not paid back what they owed to their supporters on the island! Darwin's eye for detail

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A591 Pamphlet: Armstrong, Patrick. 1992. Charles Darwin's last island: Terceira, Azores, 1836. Geowest no. 27. Text Image

Chapter 5 Echoes of Home In his letters home in the last few months of his sojourn aboard HMS Beagle, Charles Darwin makes it very clear that he was looking forward eagerly to the end of the voyage.1 He detested the sea for he was frequently seasick. Moreover, he had been ill with mysterious complaints, perhaps more serious than seasickness, while in South America, and as late as his stay in Cape Town, he had been purchasing drugs.2 He had lost quite a lot of weight during the voyage. Probably

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A591 Pamphlet: Armstrong, Patrick. 1992. Charles Darwin's last island: Terceira, Azores, 1836. Geowest no. 27. Text Image

). A keen beetle collector since his schooldays, he accumulated thousands of insect specimens on his Beagle voyage, although none from the Azores. Possibly the old English friends amongst the Insects were so familiar to him that he did not consider it worthwhile taking special written note of them, let alone collecting specimens. Today the visitor from the British Isles notices several butterfly species (Browns, Whites) and bumblebees that appear familiar from gardens at home, and it might have

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A591 Pamphlet: Armstrong, Patrick. 1992. Charles Darwin's last island: Terceira, Azores, 1836. Geowest no. 27. Text Image

Appendix A Charles Darwin's Accounts of the Steam Vents at Furnas do Enxofre Darwin wrote three accounts of the fumaroles or steam vents at Furnas do Enxofre that he visited on his first full day on Terceira. These comprised his notes in his Geological Diary, his entry in his general, personal Diary or Journal, and his fullest, most polished account, based upon these two, his description in chapter 2 of Volcanic Islands, volume 3 of The Geology of the Voyage of the Beagle. The text of the last

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