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[marginal pencil annotation by Darwin:] Mr Stutch¹[excised] at Tahiti appear[excised] case: the volcanic rocks [excised]

[illeg mostly excised word] are [excised]

of submarine origin. Both Forster and Lesson, who always mention any facts reflecting changes of level, are silent on this subject, when describing these islands. At Tahiti, I in vain sought for any indication, and it must be remembered, that recently elevated coral must generally occur near the sea shores, and that if present it cannot possibly escape observation. According then to our views, the large space included between the two parallel lines,² and strewed with low islets, has gradually been subsiding.* (b)* Between it, and the shores of America, an immense extent of open ocean conceals from us all indications of change; but when we reflect on the supply of matter necessary to upraise to so many hundred feet, the great area of that continent, we must believe in subterranean movements, acting in some distant region to an equal amount, but in an opposite direction. Is not this whole side of the Pacific the corresponding area – the subsiding scale in the balance of statical equilibrium.—* (a)*

[later pencil annotation by Darwin:] (Species theory back of page)

As it will afterwards be seen, thus the space of oceans, next to [later pencil interlineation by Darwin]

For the convenience of description we will at first pass over a space of sea, adjoining to this band of subsidence,³ and

/NO/ [pencil insertion over last 3 lines]

¹ Samuel Stutchbury. Darwin wrote in Coral reefs, p. 138: "at Tahiti Mr. Stutchbury found on the apex of one of the highest mountains, between 5000 and 7000 feet above the level of the sea, 'a distinct and regular stratum of semi-fossil coral.'" And in Volcanic islands, p. 28: "Mr. Stutchbury also discovered near the summit of one of the loftiest mountains of Tahiti, at the height of several thousand feet, a stratum of semi-fossil coral." Stutchbury 1832. Full reference below.

² Darwin wrote in Journal of researches, p. 569: "Secondly, it can be shown on the above views, that the intertropical ocean, throughout more than a hemisphere, may be divided into linear and parallel bands, of which the alternate ones have undergone, within a recent period, the opposite movements of elevation and subsidence." Chapter XXII. Coral formations. That chapter (pp. 539-569) is 11,100 words long. The document of which this leaf is a survivor, may have been even longer. This fragment corresponds to some of Darwin's remarks at the end of Chapter XXII.

³ The phrase "band of subsidence" is used only one other time in Darwin's writings, in Journal of researches, p. 566.

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(b)*

M. Lesson states that the character of the vegetation is Indio-Polynesian. By Polynesia he includes the western islands alone. After remarking on the prevailing direction of the winds and currents, from East to West, he asks; "Comment par example les vegetaux, si common sur la Polynesia, se retrouvent ils sur les îles Sandwich et sur les îles des Marquises de Mendoce, que en sont separees par un intervalle immense?."¹

Although he has omitted to notice the yearly Western gales, the circumstance is most strange. Does not the idea of the subsidence of a continent or a great archipelago throw light on the question? May not a space now occupied by low coral islets and open sea, formerly have been the centre, whence the vegetable forms migrated to the surrounding islands and to any new land rising from the bosom of the waters. I may add that the few numbers of like species of plants on the coral islets is the necessary result of the kind of soil. For on an island in the reef of the fertile Borabora, M. Lesson found the number reduced to five or six.— According to the same author, the icthyology of the Great Ocean is similar to that of India and Asia.—

Voyage de la Coquilla.—²

[There is one set of pin holes near the bottom of the leaf.]

¹ Lesson 1828-1830, vol. 2, pp. 18-19 'How, for example, do plants, so common in Polynesia, end up on the Sandwich Islands and the Marquesas Islands of Mendoce, which are separated from them by an immense distance?'. This work was not previously known to be in the Beagle library. Note the similar point made by Darwin in Journal of researches, p. 568.

² Lesson and Garnot 1826-1830.

References:

Forster, Johann Reinhold. 1778. Observations made during a voyage round the world on physical geography, natural history, and ethnic philosophy. London: G. Robinson. [signed] CUL-DAR.LIB.199 Text

Lesson, René-Primevère and Garnot, Prosper. 1826-1830. Zoologie. In Louis-Isidore Duperrey, Voyage autour du monde, executé par ordre du Roi, sur la corvette de Sa Majesté, la Coquille, pendant les années 1822, 1823, 1824 et 1825. 2 vols., atlas. Paris: Arthus Bertrand. vol. 1 part 1 PDF vol. 1 part 2 PDF vol. 2 part 1 Text vol. 2 part Text, Atlas 1 PDF Atlas 2 PDF Atlas 3 PDF

Lesson, René-Primevère. 1828-1830. Histoire naturelle générale et particulière des mammifères et des oiseaux décoverts depuis 1788 jusqu'a nos jours. 4 vols. to 1830. Paris: Baudouin. vol. 2 PDF

Stutchbury, Samuel. 1832. On the formation and growth of coral reefs and islands. [Read before the Bristol Philosophical Society March, 1832.] West of England Journal of Science and Literature 1 (January): 45-56. [Darwin Pamphlet Collection 13] PDF