"THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE" - читать интересную книгу автора (Darwin Charles)

assistance which the kindest friend could offer.

DOWN, BROMLEY, KENT,
June 9, 1845

[1] I must take this opportunity of returning my sincere thanks
to Mr. Bynoe, the surgeon of the Beagle, for his very kind
attention to me when I was ill at Valparaiso.



THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE



CHAPTER I

ST. JAGO -- CAPE DE VERD ISLANDS

Porto Praya -- Ribeira Grande -- Atmospheric Dust with
Infusoria -- Habits of a Sea-slug and Cuttle-fish -- St.
Paul's Rocks, non-volcanic -- Singular Incrustations --
Insects the first Colonists of Islands -- Fernando Noronha --
Bahia -- Burnished Rocks -- Habits of a Diodon -- Pelagic
Confervae and Infusoria -- Causes of discoloured Sea.


AFTER having been twice driven back by heavy southwestern
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 illuminate 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.

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