KEELING ISLAND.

PLATE 93. WHITSUNDAY ISLAND.

PLATE 94. BARRIER-REEF, BOLABOLA.

PLATE 95. SECTIONS OF BARRIER-REEFS.

PLATE 96. SECTION OF CORAL-REEF.

PLATE 97. SECTION OF CORAL-REEF.

PLATE 98. BOLABOLA ISLAND.

PLATE 99. CORALS.

PLATE 100. BIRGOS LATRO, KEELING ISLAND.

PLATE 101. ST. LOUIS, MAURITIUS.

PLATE 102. ST. HELENA.

PLATE 103. CELLULAR FORMATION OF VOLCANIC BOMB.

PLATE 104. CICADA HOMOPTERA.

PLATE 105. HOMEWARD BOUND.

PLATE 106. ASCENSION. TERNS AND NODDIES.

PLATE 107. MAP OF SOUTH AMERICA.

PLATE 108. MAP OF THE WORLD, SHOWING THE TRACK OF H.M.S.
"BEAGLE."

...

(PLATE 2. H.M.S. "BEAGLE": MIDDLE SECTION FORE AND AFT, UPPER
DECK, 1832.)

(PLATE 3. FERNANDO NORONHA.)

JOURNAL.

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 Confervae and Infusoria.
Causes of discoloured Sea.

ST. JAGO--CAPE DE VERD ISLANDS.

After having been twice driven back by heavy south-western 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 illumine 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 conical hills, and the
horizon is bou