A Naturalist's Voyage Round the World, by Charles Darwin

A very nice online edition, organized by Gutenberg

 

 

CONTENTS

Chapter I
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 Confervæ and Infusoria — Causes of discoloured Sea.
Chapter II Rio de Janeiro — Excursion north of Cape Frio — Great Evaporation — Slavery — Botofogo Bay — Terrestrial Planariae — Clouds on the Corcovado — Heavy Rain — Musical Frogs — Phosphorescent insects — Elater, springing powers of — Blue Haze — Noise made by a Butterfly — Entomology — Ants — Wasp killing a Spider — Parasitical Spider — Artifices of an Epeira — Gregarious Spider — Spider with an unsymmetrical web.
Chapter III Monte Video — Maldonado — Excursion to R. Polanco — Lazo and Bolas — Partridges — Absence of trees — Deer — Capybara, or River Hog — Tucutuco — Molothrus, cuckoo-like habits — Tyrant-flycatcher — Mocking-bird — Carrion Hawks — Tubes formed by lightning — House struck.
Chapter IV Rio Negro — Estancias attacked by the Indians — Salt-Lakes — Flamingoes — R. Negro to R. Colorado — Sacred Tree — Patagonian Hare — Indian Families — General Rosas — Proceed to Bahia Blanca — Sand Dunes — Negro Lieutenant — Bahia Blanca — Saline incrustations — Punta Alta — Zorillo.
Chapter V Bahia Blanca — Geology — Numerous gigantic extinct Quadrupeds — Recent Extinction — Longevity of Species — Large Animals do not require a luxuriant vegetation — Southern Africa — Siberian Fossils — Two Species of Ostrich — Habits of Oven-bird — Armadilloes — Venomous Snake, Toad, Lizard — Hybernation of Animals — Habits of Sea-Pen — Indian Wars and Massacres — Arrowhead — Antiquarian Relic.
Chapter VI Set out for Buenos Ayres — Rio Sauce — Sierra Ventana — Third Posta — Driving Horses — Bolas — Partridges and Foxes — Features of the country — Long-legged Plover — Teru-tero — Hail-storm — Natural enclosures in the Sierra Tapalguen — Flesh of Puma — Meat Diet — Guardia del Monte — Effects of cattle on the Vegetation — Cardoon — Buenos Ayres — Corral where cattle are slaughtered.
Chapter VII Excursion to St. Fé — Thistle Beds — Habits of the Bizcacha — Little Owl — Saline streams — Level plains — Mastodon — St. Fé — Change in landscape — Geology — Tooth of extinct Horse — Relation of the Fossil and recent Quadrupeds of North and South America — Effects of a great drought — Parana — Habits of the Jaguar — Scissor-beak — Kingfisher, Parrot, and Scissor-tail — Revolution — Buenos Ayres — State of Government.
Chapter VIII Excursion to Colonia del Sacramiento — Value of an Estancia — Cattle, how counted — Singular breed of Oxen — Perforated pebbles — Shepherd-dogs — Horses broken-in, Gauchos riding — Character of Inhabitants — Rio Plata — Flocks of Butterflies — Aeronaut Spiders — Phosphorescence of the Sea — Port Desire — Guanaco — Port St. Julian — Geology of Patagonia — Fossil gigantic Animal — Types of Organisation constant — Change in the Zoology of America — Causes of Extinction.
Chapter IX Santa Cruz — Expedition up the River — Indians — Immense streams of basaltic lava — Fragments not transported by the river — Excavation of the valley — Condor, habits of — Cordillera — Erratic boulders of great size — Indian relics — Return to the ship — Falkland Islands — Wild horses, cattle, rabbits — Wolf-like fox — Fire made of bones — Manner of hunting wild cattle — Geology — Streams of stones — Scenes of violence — Penguin — Geese — Eggs of Doris — Compound animals.
Chapter X Tierra del Fuego, first arrival — Good Success Bay — An account of the Fuegians on board — Interview with the savages — Scenery of the forests — Cape Horn — Wigwam Cove — Miserable condition of the savages — Famines — Cannibals — Matricide — Religious feelings — Great Gale — Beagle Channel — Ponsonby Sound — Build wigwams and settle the Fuegians — Bifurcation of the Beagle Channel — Glaciers — Return to the Ship — Second visit in the Ship to the Settlement — Equality of condition amongst the natives.
Chapter XI Strait of Magellan — Port Famine — Ascent of Mount Tarn — Forests — Edible fungus — Zoology — Great Seaweed — Leave Tierra del Fuego — Climate — Fruit-trees and productions of the southern coasts — Height of snow-line on the Cordillera — Descent of glaciers to the sea — Icebergs formed — Transportal of boulders — Climate and productions of the Antarctic Islands — Preservation of frozen carcasses — Recapitulation.
Chapter XII Valparaiso — Excursion to the foot of the Andes — Structure of the land — Ascend the Bell of Quillota — Shattered masses of greenstone — Immense valleys — Mines — State of miners — Santiago — Hot-baths of Cauquenes — Gold-mines — Grinding-mills — Perforated stones — Habits of the Puma — El Turco and Tapacolo — Humming-birds.
Chapter XIII Chiloe — General aspect — Boat excursion — Native Indians — Castro — Tame fox — Ascend San Pedro — Chonos Archipelago — Peninsula of Tres Montes — Granitic range — Boat-wrecked sailors — Low's Harbour — Wild potato — Formation of peat — Myopotamus, otter and mice — Cheucau and Barking-bird — Opetiorhynchus — Singular character of ornithology — Petrels.
Chapter XIV San Carlos, Chiloe — Osorno in eruption, contemporaneously with Aconcagua and Coseguina — Ride to Cucao — Impenetrable forests — Valdivia — Indians — Earthquake — Concepcion — Great earthquake — Rocks fissured — Appearance of the former towns — The sea black and boiling — Direction of the vibrations — Stones twisted round — Great Wave — Permanent Elevation of the land — Area of volcanic phenomena — The connection between the elevatory and eruptive forces — Cause of earthquakes — Slow elevation of mountain-chains.
Chapter XV Valparaiso — Portillo Pass — Sagacity of mules — Mountain-torrents — Mines, how discovered — Proofs of the gradual elevation of the Cordillera — Effect of snow on rocks — Geological structure of the two main ranges, their distinct origin and upheaval — Great subsidence — Red snow — Winds — Pinnacles of snow — Dry and clear atmosphere — Electricity — Pampas — Zoology of the opposite sides of the Andes — Locusts — Great Bugs — Mendoza — Uspallata Pass — Silicified trees buried as they grew — Incas Bridge — Badness of the passes exaggerated — Cumbre — Casuchas — Valparaiso.
Chapter XVI Coast-road to Coquimbo — Great loads carried by the miners — Coquimbo — Earthquake — Step-formed terraces — Absence of recent deposits — Contemporaneousness of the Tertiary formations — Excursion up the valley — Road to Guasco — Deserts — Valley of Copiapó — Rain and Earthquakes — Hydrophobia — The Despoblado — Indian ruins — Probable change of climate — River-bed arched by an earthquake — Cold gales of wind — Noises from a hill — Iquique — Salt alluvium — Nitrate of soda — Lima — Unhealthy country — Ruins of Callao, overthrown by an earthquake — Recent subsidence — Elevated shells on San Lorenzo, their decomposition — Plain with embedded shells and fragments of pottery — Antiquity of the Indian Race.
Chapter XVII Galapagos Archipelago — The whole group volcanic — Number of craters — Leafless bushes — Colony at Charles Island — James Island — Salt-lake in crater — Natural history of the group — Ornithology, curious finches — Reptiles — Great tortoises, habits of — Marine lizard, feeds on seaweed — Terrestrial lizard, burrowing habits, herbivorous — Importance of reptiles in the Archipelago — Fish, shells, insects — Botany — American type of organisation — Differences in the species or races on different islands — Tameness of the birds — Fear of man an acquired instinct.
Chapter XVIII Pass through the Low Archipelago — Tahiti — Aspect — Vegetation on the mountains — View of Eimeo — Excursion into the interior — Profound ravines — Succession of waterfalls — Number of wild useful plants — Temperance of the inhabitants — Their moral state — Parliament convened — New Zealand — Bay of Islands — Hippahs — Excursion to Waimate — Missionary establishment — English weeds now run wild — Waiomio — Funeral of a New Zealand woman — Sail for Australia.
Chapter XIX Sydney — Excursion to Bathurst — Aspect of the woods — Party of natives — Gradual extinction of the aborigines — Infection generated by associated men in health — Blue Mountains — View of the grand gulf-like valleys — Their origin and formation — Bathurst, general civility of the lower orders — State of Society — Van Diemen's Land — Hobart Town — Aborigines all banished — Mount Wellington — King George's Sound — Cheerless aspect of the country — Bald Head, calcareous casts of branches of trees — Party of natives — Leave Australia.
Chapter XX Keeling Island — Singular appearance — Scanty Flora — Transport of seeds — Birds and insects — Ebbing and flowing springs — Fields of dead coral — Stones transported in the roots of trees — Great crab — Stinging corals — Coral-eating fish — Coral formations — Lagoon islands or atolls — Depth at which reef-building corals can live — Vast areas interspersed with low coral islands — Subsidence of their foundations — Barrier-reefs — Fringing-reefs — Conversion of fringing-reefs into barrier-reefs, and into atolls — Evidence of changes in level — Breaches in barrier-reefs — Maldiva atolls, their peculiar structure — Dead and submerged reefs — Areas of subsidence and elevation — Distribution of volcanoes — Subsidence slow and vast in amount.
Chapter XXI Mauritius, beautiful appearance of — Great crateriform ring of mountains — Hindoos — St. Helena — History of the changes in the vegetation — Cause of the extinction of land-shells — Ascension — Variation in the imported rats — Volcanic bombs — Beds of infusoria — Bahia, Brazil — Splendour of tropical scenery — Pernambuco — Singular reefs — Slavery — Return to England — Retrospect on our voyage.
Index