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Charles Darwin joined captain FitzRoy on the HMS Beagle as ship's naturalist for a trip around the world.
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Darwin is exhilarated by his first observations.
'It then irst dawned on me that I might perhaps write a book on the geology of the various countries visited, and this made me thrill with delight.' -
We have crossed the Equator, and they have undergone the disagreeable operation of being shaved...
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Darwin explores Brazilian rainforests for the first time.
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Darwin is intrigued by the giant fossils he sees.
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Captain Robert FitzRoy repartriates three native people he had brought to England on a previous voyage. FitzRoy attempts to start a Christian mission, which fails disastrously.
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Darwin finds the barren, windswept Falkland Islands 'desolate and wretched.' But he perks up when he cracks open some 'primitive looking rocks'and finds fossils. The Falklands were full of brachiopods two-shelled animals once among the most abundant organisms on Earth,
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Darwin explores the fertile lowland areas, know as Pampas, with the local people or 'gauchos'. There is high enjoyment in the independence of the gaucho life- to be able at any moment to pull up horse.'
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Darwin sees Mount Osomo erupt while on the island of Chiloe and experences the earthqake in the woods near Valdivia. Seeing he aftermath of the earthquake affected hhim fremendously. 'I believe this earthquake has done more in degrading or lessening the size of the island, than 100 years of ordinary wear and tear.'
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Drwin finds many species of plants, birds and tortoises unique to the Galapagos Islands, but they seem mysteriously related to mainland species.
ex)Galapagos tortoises, marine iguana, blue-footed boobies -
On arrival in Sydney Cove, Darwin's first feeling was 'to congratulate myself that I was born an Englishman... it is a fine town.'
Marvelling at marsupials, Darwin wonders why there is a completely different set of mammals in Australia. -
Darwin studies coral reefs growing around islands to test his theory of atoll formation. 'I am flad we have visited there islands; such formations surely rank high amongst the wonderful objects of this world.'
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'I took a quiet walk along the sea coast to the north of the town,]; the plain is there quite uncultivatedm consisting of a field or black lava smoothed over with coarse grass and bushes the greater part of which are mimosas,' observes Darwin.
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'The first object in Cape Town which strikes the eye of a stranger, is the number of bullock wagons... I have as yet not mentiond the well know Table Mountain;this great mass of horizonfally stratified sandstone rises quite close behind the town to a height of 3,500 feet.'
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In the jungles of South America, Darwin discovers many incredible creatures. Howeverm both homesick and seasick, he is dismayed when he Beagle makes an unscheduled detour to make additional longitude measurments. 'This zig-zag manner of proceeding is very grievous... I loathe. I abhor the sea, and all ships which sail on it.'
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The Beaglw ship was only 27m (90feet)long and carried 74 people, and 22 clocks, in very close quarters!
