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A Naturalist's Voyage Around the World.*

The sailing of Charles Darwin in the Beagle, in 1831, was a notable event in the history of science. The expedition may be said to have discovered Darwin, or at least to have made him known to the world. Had the "Cruise of the Beagle" accomplished nothing more, it would not have been in vain. The appearance, in 1839, of this journal, which has been pronounced "the most entertaining book of genuine travels ever written," made him known as an acute and accurate observer, a philosophic thinker and a close reasoner, and established his reputation as a naturalist. It has been, ever since its first appearance, a classic in every scientific library, and a model for every young naturalist, teaching him what to see, how to see, and how to tell what he has seen. This expedition also rendered great service to science in its recognition of the principle that scientific observation might be as legitimate a part of governmental exploration, as mere geographical knowledge, or the collection of statistics of population, production, and possible trade. It sounds strangely, in these days when the domain of natural science is divided and subdivided to such a degree, that the zoologist hardly knows a flower or the botanist a bug when he sees it, and a scientific expedition would have half a dozen specialists to do the work, that one man should volunteer to make "researches into natural history and geology." But that man was Darwin, and he set an example of interest in every department of science, that might well be followed by all similar expeditions and surveys.

The Beagle sailed first to South America, nearly circumnavigating the continet, touching at various points and stopping long enough at each to allow of exploration of the surrounding country. He discourses in most attractive style of earthquakes and tidal waves, glaciers and red snow, humming-birds and mammoth tortoises, and especially of the hitherto unknown fossil monsters of the quaternary age. His account of Tierra del Fuego and the Straits of Magellan, with their glaciers and icebergs, their scanty flora and fauna, and the wretched natives, is wonderfully graphic and leaves very little to be added by later voyages. There is a striking contrast between this "Journal," and "Around and about South America," noticed in these columns a few weeks ago. […] At the Keelings or Cocos Islands Mr. Darwin makes careful study of the structure of coral islands and propounds his theory of their formation, now generally accepted. Thence their way lies to Mauritius, St. Helena, Brazil for a second time, and home after an absence of five years. The interest of this book will be perennial alike to old and young, the scientific and the unscientific reader, and this new edition reader that immortality every way delightful. It is a comfort to the eye, the illustrations are plentiful, artistic and truthful, and the volume is as ornamental to the parlor table as it is essential to the library shelves.