Archive for the ‘The Voyage of the Beagle’ Category
On the Origin of Species
November 24th, 2009 by Joel
Today is the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s masterpiece, the first edition of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. It’s been a while since I last read it, and my view of evolution has changed several times since – so [...]
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Chapter 09 – Santa Cruz, Patagonia and the Falkland Islands
May 17th, 2009 by Joel
Another 3 week delay between chapters! I’m not very good at this…
On April 13, 1834, the Beagle anchors at the mouth of the Santa Cruz, a long river running much of the way through South America. The previous voyage of the Beagle explored a short distance of this river and FitzRoy is determined to explore [...]
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Chapter 08 – Banda Oriental and Patagonia
April 23rd, 2009 by Joel
This is a fairly long chapter, and much of it is a journal, from commentary on religious tolerance to the scientific education of the population (there are locals who express astonishment to learn that the world is round). And, then, suddenly, in the last couple of pages, we’re suddenly hit with biogeography, natural history, and [...]
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Chapter 7 – Buenos Aires and St Fé
April 7th, 2009 by Joel
First off, the other day I mentioned that I would say something about my honour’s work sooner or later. I will, and, considering how excited I am about the upcoming Paul Nelson day, I’ll post something about it tomorrow*.
This is also a pretty significant chapter: there is a tremendous discussion of the biogeography of both [...]
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Chapter 6 – Bahia Blanca to Buenos Aires
March 26th, 2009 by Joel
I’m not going to say very much about this chapter – mostly, it’s a diary of a mostly uneventful trip across the plains, via a series of military outposts. I’m only planning on bringing up a few interesting anecdotes.
Darwin passes a high mountain, unexplored by any Europeans. Naturally, therefore, there were a lot of rumours. [...]
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Chapter 05 – Bahia Blanca
March 24th, 2009 by Joel
So, uh, a three week delay. This was a really dense chapter? That’s true, certainly, but perhaps more relevantly, I completely unexpectedly started an honours degree (I didn’t actually finish the application, and wasn’t exactly planning on doing so this year anyway, but they accepted me anyway). More on that later, but let’s return to [...]
Tags: Blogging the Beagle
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Chapter 04 – Rio Negro to Bahia Blanca
March 1st, 2009 by Joel
Thus we have a little living world within itself adapted to these inland lakes of brine.
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle
On April 3, 1833, the Beagle arrives at the mouth of the Rio Negro. Darwin begins by commenting on the geography: sandstone strata, with a layer of pumice (volcanic) pebbles – did these travel [...]
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Chapter 03 – Maldonado
February 18th, 2009 by Joel
Lamarck would have been delighted with this fact…
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle
July 5, 1832 – The Beagle sails from Rio de Janeiro to Maldonado, a small town of little trade (now a town of some 55,000 people in Uruguay). Darwin spends 10 weeks here, exploring the region and collecting specimens. The people here [...]
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Chapter 02 – Rio de Janeiro
February 14th, 2009 by Joel
One of the recurring themes of this chapter is Darwin’s opposition to slavery. Darwin does not only oppose slavery on an intellectual level, but also as someone who has witnessed the cruelties and horror of a slave country with his own eyes.
It is also becoming increasingly obvious that it is not true, as often supposed, [...]
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Chapter 01 – St Jargo to Cape de Verd Island
February 12th, 2009 by Joel
The Beagle may have been delayed initially, first by unhelpful winds and then fears that the ship was carrying cholera, but Darwin nonetheless gets straight into the action, describing the geology of the first stop at Porto Praya (Jan 16, 1832). The rains only come a few times a year, and the wanton destruction of [...]
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