All Topics  
The Voyage of the Beagle

 
The Voyage of the Beagle

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

The Voyage of the Beagle
 
 
  Topics The Voyage of the Beagle Topic Home

This is about the book. For the expedition see second voyage of HMS Beagle
Second voyage of HMS Beagle

The second voyage of HMS Beagle from 27 December 1831 to 2 October 1836 was the second survey expedition of HMS Beagle, under captain Robert FitzRoy who had taken over command of the ship on its first voyage after her previous captain committed suicide....
The Voyage of the Beagle is a title commonly given to the book
Book

A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of paper, parchment, or other material, usually fastened together to hinge at one side....
 written by Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin Royal Society was an English people natural history who realised and presented compelling evidence that all species of life have evolution over time from common descent, through the process he called natural selection....
 published in 1839 as his Journal and Remarks, which brought him considerable fame and respect.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'The Voyage of the Beagle'
Start a new discussion about 'The Voyage of the Beagle'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


This is about the book. For the expedition see second voyage of HMS Beagle
Second voyage of HMS Beagle

The second voyage of HMS Beagle from 27 December 1831 to 2 October 1836 was the second survey expedition of HMS Beagle, under captain Robert FitzRoy who had taken over command of the ship on its first voyage after her previous captain committed suicide....
Hms Beagle By Conrad Martens
The Voyage of the Beagle is a title commonly given to the book
Book

A book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of paper, parchment, or other material, usually fastened together to hinge at one side....
 written by Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin Royal Society was an English people natural history who realised and presented compelling evidence that all species of life have evolution over time from common descent, through the process he called natural selection....
 published in 1839 as his Journal and Remarks, which brought him considerable fame and respect. The title refers to the second survey expedition
Second voyage of HMS Beagle

The second voyage of HMS Beagle from 27 December 1831 to 2 October 1836 was the second survey expedition of HMS Beagle, under captain Robert FitzRoy who had taken over command of the ship on its first voyage after her previous captain committed suicide....
 of the ship HMS Beagle
HMS Beagle

HMS Beagle was a Cherokee class brig-sloop 10-gun sloop-of-war#Rigging of the Royal Navy, named after the beagle, a breed of dog. She was ship naming and launching on 11 May 1820 from the Woolwich Dockyard on the River Thames, at a cost of ?7,803....
, which set sail from Plymouth Sound
Plymouth Sound

Plymouth Sound, or locally just The Sound, is a Headlands and bays at Plymouth in England.Its south west and south east corners are Penlee Point, Rame in Cornwall and Wembury Point on Devon, a distance of about 3 nautical miles ....
 on 27 December 1831 under the command of captain Robert FitzRoy
Robert FitzRoy

Vice-Admiral Robert FitzRoy achieved lasting fame as the captain of HMS Beagle during Charles Darwin's famous voyage, and as a pioneering meteorology who made accurate weather forecasting a reality....
.

While the expedition was originally planned to last two years, it lasted almost five–the Beagle did not return until 2 October 1836. Darwin spent most of this time exploring on land (three years and three months on land; 18 months at sea).

The book, also known as Darwin's Journal of Researches, is a vivid and exciting travel memoir as well as a detailed scientific field journal covering biology
Biology

Biology is a branch of the natural sciences concerned with the study of living organisms and their interaction with each other and their environment ....
, geology
Geology

Geology is the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitute the Earth. The field of geology encompasses the study of the composition, structural geology, physical properties, dynamics, and History of the Earth of Earth materials, and the processes by which they are formed, moved, and changed....
, and anthropology
Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of humans and humanity in its totality. Anthropology has origins in the natural sciences, and the humanities. In Great Britain it was originally divided into physical anthropology and cultural anthropology, which itself was divided into archaeology, technology, ethnology and sociology ....
 that demonstrates Darwin's keen powers of observation, written at a time when Western Europeans
Western world

The term Western world, the West or the Occident can have multiple meanings dependent on its context . Accordingly, the basic definition of what constitutes "the West" varies, expanding and contracting over time, in relation to various historical circumstances....
 were exploring and charting the whole world. Although Darwin revisited some areas during the expedition, for clarity the chapters of the book are ordered by reference to places and locations rather than chronologically. With hindsight, ideas which Darwin would later develop into his theory of evolution
Evolution

In biology, evolution is change in the heritability trait of a population of organisms from one generation to the next. These changes are caused by a combination of three main processes: variation, reproduction, and selection....
 by natural selection
Natural selection

Natural selection is the process by which favorable heritable trait become more common in successive generations of a population of Reproduction organisms, and unfavorable heritable traits become less common, due to differential reproduction of genotypes....
 are hinted at in his notes and in the book.

Publication of FitzRoy's narrative and Darwin's book

Darwin was invited by FitzRoy to contribute the natural history section to the captain's account of the Beagle's voyage, and using his field notes and the journal which he had been sending home for his family to read, completed this section by September 1837. As well as writing his own account of the voyage and the previous expedition of two ships, FitzRoy had to edit the notes of the previous captain of the Beagle. The account was completed and published in May 1838 as the Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Beagle in four volumes. Volume one covers the first voyage under Commander Phillip Parker King, volume two is FitzRoy's account of the second voyage. Darwin's Journal and Remarks, 1832—1835 forms the third volume, the fourth volume being a lengthy appendix. FitzRoy's account includes Remarks with reference to the Deluge in which he recanted his earlier interest in the geological writings of Charles Lyell
Charles Lyell

Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, Order of the Thistle, Fellow of the Royal Society was a Scotland lawyer, geologist, and protagonist of Uniformitarianism ....
 and his remarks to a Darwin during the expedition that sedimentary features they saw "could never have been effected by a forty days' flood", asserting his renewed commitment to a literal reading of the Bible. He had married on the ship's return, and his wife was very religious.

Darwin's contribution proved remarkably popular and the publisher, Henry Colburn of London, took it upon himself to reissue the same text in August with a new title page as Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the various countries visited by H.M.S. Beagle apparently without seeking Darwin's permission or paying him a fee.

Later editions: changing ideas on evolution

The book went through many editions, and was subsequently published with several different titles. The best known was the second edition of 1844 which incorporated extensive revisions in the light of interpretation of the collections and developing ideas on evolution. This edition was commissioned by the publisher John Murray
John Murray (publisher)

John Murray was a United Kingdom publishing house, renowned for the roster of authors it has published in its history, including Jane Austen, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, Charles Lyell, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Charles Darwin....
, who actually paid Darwin a fee.

In the first edition regarding the similarity of Galápagos wildlife to that on the South American continent, Darwin remarks "The circumstance would be explained, according to the views of some authors, by saying that the creative power had acted according to the same law over a wide area" in a reference to Charles Lyell
Charles Lyell

Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, Order of the Thistle, Fellow of the Royal Society was a Scotland lawyer, geologist, and protagonist of Uniformitarianism ....
's ideas of "centres of creation". He notes the gradations in size of the beaks of species of finches, suspects that species "are confined to different islands", "But there is not space in this work, to enter into this curious subject."

Later editions hint at his new ideas on evolution:
"Considering the small size of these islands, we feel the more astonished at the number of their aboriginal beings, and at their confined range... within a period geologically recent the unbroken ocean was here spread out. Hence, both in space and time, we seem to be brought somewhat near to that great fact – that mystery of mysteries – the first appearance of new beings on this earth."
Speaking of the finches with their gradations in size of beaks, he writes "one might really fancy that from an original paucity of birds in this archipelago, one species had been taken and modified for different ends."

Contents – where Darwin went

The book's list of contents outlines where Charles Darwin went (not in exact chronological sequence). See Second voyage of HMS Beagle
Second voyage of HMS Beagle

The second voyage of HMS Beagle from 27 December 1831 to 2 October 1836 was the second survey expedition of HMS Beagle, under captain Robert FitzRoy who had taken over command of the ship on its first voyage after her previous captain committed suicide....
 for a detailed synopsis of Darwin's travels.

  • Preface
  1. Santiago
    Santiago, Cape Verde

    Santiago , or Santiagu in Cape Verdean Creole, is the largest island of Cape Verde, its most important agricultural centre and home to half the nation?s population....
     – Cape Verde
    Cape Verde

    The Republic of Cape Verde , is an archipelago nation located in the Macaronesia ecoregion of the North Atlantic Ocean, off the western coast of Africa....
     Islands
  2. Saint Peter and Paul Rocks
    Saint Peter and Paul Rocks

    The Saint Peter and Saint Paul Islets, officially the Arquip?lago de S?o Pedro e S?o Paulo, is an archipelago of the Pernambuco, in Brazil....
  3. Rio de Janeiro
    Rio de Janeiro

    Rio de Janeiro , is the second largest city of Brazil and South America, behind S?o Paulo, and the third largest metropolitan area in South America, behind S?o Paulo and Buenos Aires....
  4. Maldonado
    Maldonado, Uruguay

    Maldonado is the capital of Uruguay?s Maldonado Department. Its population, as of 2004, was 54,603.Maldonado was founded in 1755 at the initiative of the Governor of Montevideo Joaquin de Viana....
  5. Río Negro
    Río Negro (Uruguay)

    The R?o Negro is a river in Uruguay....
     to Bahia Blanca
  6. Bahia Blanca
    Bahía Blanca

    Bah?a Blanca is a city located in the south-west of the provinces of Argentina of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, by the Atlantic Ocean, head town of Bahia Blanca Partido....
  7. Bahia Blanca to Buenos Aires
  8. Buenos Aires
    Buenos Aires

    Buenos Aires is the Capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southern shore of the R?o de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent....
     and St. Fe
    Santa Fe, Argentina

    File:Calle San Mart?n, Santa Fe, Argentina.jpgSanta Fe is the capital city of provinces of Argentina of Santa Fe Province, Argentina. It sits in northeastern Argentina, near the junction of the Paran? River and Salado River, Argentina rivers....
  9. Banda Oriental
    Uruguay

    Uruguay is a country located in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to 3.46 million people, of whom 1.7 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area....
     and Patagonia
    Patagonia

    Patagonia is a geographic region containing the southernmost portion of South America. Located in Argentina and Chile, it comprises the Andes mountains to the west and south, and plateaux and low plains to the east....
  10. Santa Cruz
    Santa Cruz Province (Argentina)

    Santa Cruz is a Provinces of Argentina of Argentina, located in the southern part of the country, in Patagonia. It borders Chubut Province province to the north, and Chile to the west and south....
    , Patagonia, and The Falkland Islands
    Falkland Islands

    The Falkland Islands are an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean, located from the coast of Argentina, west of the Shag Rocks , and north of the British Antarctic Territory ....
  11. Tierra del Fuego
    Tierra del Fuego

    Tierra del Fuego is an archipelago separated from the southernmost tip of the South American mainland by the Strait of Magellan. The southern point of the archipelago forms Cape Horn....
  12. Strait of Magellan. – Climate of the Southern Coasts
  13. Central Chile
    Chile

    Chile, officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long and narrow coastal strip wedged between the Andes mountains and the Pacific Ocean....
  14. Chiloe Island
    Chiloé Island

    Chilo? Island , also known as Greater Island of Chilo? , is the largest island of Chilo? Archipelago off the coast of Chile, in the Pacific Ocean....
     and Chonos Islands
    Chonos Archipelago

    Chonos Archipelago is a series of low mountainous elongated islands with deep bays are traces of a drowned Chilean Coast Range. Most of the islands are forested with little or no human settlement....
  15. Concepcion
    Concepción, Chile

    Concepci?n is a city in Chile, capital of Concepci?n Province, Chile and of the B?o-B?o Region. Greater Concepci?n is the second-largest conurbation in the country, with 889,725 inhabitants ....
    : Great Earthquake
  16. Passage of the Cordillera
    American cordillera

    The American Cordillera consists of an essentially continuous sequence of mountain ranges that form the western "backbone" of North America, Central America and South America....
  17. Northern Chile and Peru
    Peru

    Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
  18. Galapagos Archipelago
    Galápagos Islands

    Gal?pagos Islands are an archipelago of Island#Volcanic islands distributed around the equator in the Pacific Ocean, 972 km west of continental Ecuador....
  19. Tahiti
    Tahiti

    O Tahiti is the largest island in the Windward Islands group of French Polynesia, located in the archipelago of Society Islands in the southern Pacific Ocean....
     and New Zealand
    New Zealand

    New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous Islands of New Zealand, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands....
  20. Australia
    Australia

    Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the southern hemisphere comprising the Australia of the world's smallest continent, the major island of Tasmania, and numerous list of islands of Australia in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Oceans....
  21. Keeling Island
    Cocos (Keeling) Islands

    The Territory of Cocos Islands, also called Cocos Islands and Keeling Islands, is a States and territories of Australia of Australia....
    : – Coral Formations
  22. Mauritius
    Mauritius

    Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius, , is an island nation off the coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about 900 kilometres east of Madagascar....
     to England
    England

    native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...


Sources

  • Retrieved on 2006-12-15*
  • Retrieved on 2007-04-30
  • (The Autobiography of Charles Darwin
    The Autobiography of Charles Darwin

    The Autobiography of Charles Darwin is the autobiography of the United Kingdom naturalist Charles Darwin which was published in 1887, five years after his death....
    ) Retrieved on 2006-12-15
  • (The Autobiography of Charles Darwin
    The Autobiography of Charles Darwin

    The Autobiography of Charles Darwin is the autobiography of the United Kingdom naturalist Charles Darwin which was published in 1887, five years after his death....
    ) Retrieved on 2006-12-15* Retrieved on 2007-04-30
  • Retrieved on 2006-12-15
  • Retrieved on 2006-12-15

Bibliography of original publications

  • Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle, Volume I – Retrieved on 2007-04-30
  • Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle, Volume II – Retrieved on 2006-12-15
  • Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle, Volume III – (The Voyage of the Beagle) Retrieved on 2007-04-30
  • Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle, Appendix – Retrieved on 2006-12-15


  • (The Voyage of the Beagle) Retrieved on 2007-04-30


External links


Full Texts



Other resources

  • - a multi-page synopsis with superb maps.
  • at .


See also

  • Puerto Hambre
    Puerto Hambre

    Puerto Hambre, also known as Puerto del Hambre and at one time as Port Famine, is a historic settlement site at Buena Bay on the west side of the Strait of Magellan approximately 58 km south of Punta Arenas, Chile in the Magallanes Region of Chile, Patagonia, Chile....