Music Welcome to Snewscast, the podcast is on to help you fall asleep. Find us at snoozecast.com and if you enjoy our show, please share us with a friend. This episode is brought to you by French Grey and Bright Yellow. Tonight we'll read excerpts from the first chapter of Charles Darwin's The Voyage of the Beagle. This chapter explores around the islands of Cape Verde. The voyage of the Beagle is the title most commonly given to the book published in 1839 as Darwin's journal and remarks, bringing him considerable fame and respect.

This was the third volume of the narrative of the voyages of H. M. Ships, Adventure and Beagle. The other volumes of which were written or edited by the commanders of the Ships. Journals and remarks cover covers Darwin's part in the Second Survey Expedition of the Ship HMS Beagle. Due to the popularity of Darwin's account, the publisher re-issued it later in 1839 as Darwin's Journal of Researchers. A re-publication of the book in 1905 introduced the title, The Voyage of the Beagle, by which it is now best known. It's get cozy. Close your eyes. Relax your body into the softness of your bed. Now take a few deep breaths. having been twice driven back by heavy southwestern gales, Her Majesty's ship Beagle, a ten-gun brig, sailed from Devonport on 27 December 1831. The object of the expedition was to complete the survey of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. Commence Thunder 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. Soon we saw the sun rise behind the rugged outline of the Grand Canary Island, and suddenly illuminate the peaks, 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 on the chief island of the Cape David Archipelago. The neighborhood of Porto Prya, viewed from the sea, wears a desolate aspect. the volcanic fires of a past age, and the scorching heat of a tropical sun

having desolate aspect, the volcanic fires of a past age, and the scorching heat of a tropical sun, having 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 bounded by an irregular chain of more lofty mountains. The scene has beheld through the hazy atmosphere of this climate is one of great interest. If indeed a person fresh from sea and who has just walked for the first time in a grove of coconut trees can be a judge of anything but his own happiness. The island would generally be considered as very uninteresting, but to anyone accustomed only to an English landscape, the novel aspect of an utterly sterile land possesses a grandeur which more vegetation might spoil. A single green leaf can scarcely be discovered over wide tracks of the lava plains. Yet flocks of goats, together with a few cows, contrive to exist. It rains very seldom. but during a short portion of the year, heavy torrents fall, and immediately afterwards, a light vegetation springs out of every crevice. This soon and on withers, and upon such a naturally formed hay the animals live. It had not now rained for an entire year. Few living creatures inhabit these valleys. The Communist bird is a kingfisher, which tamely sits on the branches of the castor oil plant and then starts on grasshoppers and lizards. It is brightly colored, but not so beautiful as the European species. in its flight, manners, and place of habitation, which is generally in the driest valley, there is also a wide difference. One day, two of the officers and myself wrote to to Ribbiera Grande, a village a few miles eastward of Portopriah, until we reached the valley of St. Martin. The country presented its usual dull brown appearance. But here, a very small reel of water produces a most refreshing margin of luxuriant vegetation. In the course of an hour we arrived at Riviera Grande and were surprised at the sight of a large ruined fort and cathedral. This little town, before its harbor was filled up, was the principal place in the island. It now presents a melancholy, but very picturesque appearance. Another day we rode to the village of Saint Domingo, situated near the center of the island. On a small plane, which we crossed, a few stunted occasions were growing. Their tops had been bent by the steady trade wind, in a singular manner. Some of them even had right angles to their trunks. The direction of the branches was exactly northeast by north and southwest by south. And these natural veins must indicate the prevailing direction of the force of the trade wind. The traveling had made so little impression on the barren soil that we here missed our track and took that to Fuentes. This we did not find out till we arrived there and we were afterwards glad of our mistake. Fuentes is a pretty village with a small stream and everything appeared to prosper well. Near Fuentes we saw a large flock of guineafowl, probably 50 or 60 in number. they were extremely wary and could not be approached. They avoided us, like partridges on a rainy day in September, running with their heads cocked up, and if pursued, they readily took to their wing. The scenery of St. Domingo possesses a beauty totally unexpected. The village is situated at the bottom of a valley, bounded by lofty and jagged walls of stratified lava. The black rocks afford a most striking contrast with the bright green vegetation, which follows the banks of a little stream of clear water. It happened to be a grand feast today and the village was full of people. On our return we overtook a party of about twenty girls, dressed in excellent taste. As soon as we approached near, they suddenly all turned round, and covering the path with their shawls, sung with great energy, a wild song, beating time with their hands upon their legs. One morning, the view was singularly clear. The distant mountains being projected with the sharpest outline on a heavy bank of dark blue clouds. Judging from the appearance and from similar cases in England, I suppose that the air was saturated with moisture. The fact, however, turned out quite the contrary. The hygrometer gave a difference of 29.6 degrees, between the temperature of the air and the point at which dew was precipitated. This difference was nearly doubled that which I had observed on the previous mornings. This unusual degree of atmospheric dryness was accompanied by continual flashes of lightning. Is it not an uncommon case, thus to find a remarkable degree of aerial transparency with such a state of weather. The geology of this island is the most interesting part of its natural history. On entering the harbor, a perfectly horizontal white band in the face of the sea cliff may be seen running for some miles along the coast and at the height of about 45 feet above the water. Upon examination, this white stratum is found to consist of calcorous matter with numerous shells embedded, most are all of which now exist on the neighboring coast. It rests on ancient volcanic rocks and has been covered by a stream of basalt, which must have entered the sea when the white Shelley bed was lying at the bottom. It is interesting to trace the changes produced by the heat of the overlying lava on the freeable mass, which in parts has been converted into a crystalline limestone and in other parts into a compact, spotted stone. Where the lime has been caught up by the fragments on the lower surface of the stream, it is converted into groups of beautifully radiated fibers resembling or raggedite. The beds of lava rise in successive gently sloping plains towards the interior, once the The delias of melted stone have originally proceeded, even the form of a crater can but barely be discovered on the summits of the many red cindery hills. Yet the more recent streams can be distinguished on the coast, forming lines of cliffs of less height, but stretching out in advance of those belonging to an older series. The height of the cliffs thus affording a root measure of the age of the streams. During our stay, I observed the habits of some marine animals. A large aplisha is very common. This sea slug is about five inches long and is of a dirty yellowish color veined with purple. On each side of the lower surface or foot there is a broad membrane which appears sometimes to act as a ventilator and causing a current of water to flow over the dorsal lungs. It feeds on the delicate seaweeds which grow among the stones in muddy and shallow water, and I found in its stomach several small pebbles as in the gizzard of a bird. This slug, when disturbed, emits a very fine, purplish red fluid, which stains the water for the space of a foot around. I was much interested on several occasions by watching the habits of an octopus or cuddle fish. Although common in the pools of water left by the retiring tide, these animals were not easily caught. By means of their long arms and suckers, they could drag their bodies into very narrow crevices. And when thus fixed, it required great force to remove them. At other times, they darted tail first, with the rapidity of an arrow, from one side of the pool to the other, at the same instant, discoloring the water with a dark chestnut brown ink. These animals also escape detection by a very extraordinary chameleon-like power of changing their color. They appear to vary their tints according to the nature of the ground over which they pass. When in deep water, their general shade was brownish purple, but when placed on the land, or in shallow water, this dark tint changed into one of a yellowish green. The color, examined more carefully, was a French gray, with numerous minute spots of bright yellow. The former of these varied in intensity. latter, entirely disappeared and appeared again by turns. These changes were affected in such a manner that clouds varying in tint between a highest in thread and a chestnut brown were continually passing over the body.

Any part being subjected to a slight shock of galvanism became almost black, a similar effect, but in a less degree was produced by scratching the skin with a needle. these clowns, or blushes as they may be called, are said to be produced by the alternate expansion and contraction of my nude vesicles containing variously colored fluids. This cuttlefish displayed its chameleon-like power both during the act of swimming and walled remaining stationary at the bottom. I was much amused by the various arts to escape detection used by one individual, which seemed fully aware that I was watching it. Remaining for a time motionless, it would then stealthily advance an inch or two, like a cat after a mouse. Sometimes changing its color, it thus proceeded. Till having gained a deeper part, it darted away, leaving a dusky train of ink to hide the hole into which it had croned. While looking for marine animals, with my head about two feet above the rocky shore, I was more than once saluted by a jet of water, accompanied by a slight grating noise. At first I could not think what it was, but afterwards I found out that it was this cuddlefish, which, though concealed in a hole, thus often led me to its discovery, that it possesses the power of ejecting water, there is no doubt. And it appeared to me that it could certainly take good aim by directing the tube or siphon on the underside of its body. From the difficulty which these animals have in carrying their heads, they cannot crawl with ease when placed on the ground. I observed that one which I kept in the cabin was slightly phosphorescent in the dark. Saint Paul's rocks. In crossing the Atlantic, we hope to during the morning of February 16th close to the island of St. Paul's. We found on St. Paul's only two kinds of birds, the booby and the naughty. The former is a species of granite and the latter a turn.

Both are of a tame disposition and are so unaccustomed to visitors. The booby lays her eggs on the bear wrong, but the turn makes a very simple nest with seaweed. By the side of many of these nests a small flying fish was placed, which I suppose had been brought by the male bird for its partner. It was amusing to watch how quickly a large and active crab which inhabits the crevices of the rock, stole the fish from the side of the nest as soon as we had disturbed the parent birds. Not a single plant grows on this island, yet it is inhabited by several insects and spiders. off often repeated description of the stately palm and other noble tropical plants, then birds, and lastly man, taking possession of the coral eyelids as soon as formed, in the Pacific is probably not correct. I fear it destroys the poetry of this story, the smallest rock in the tropical seas, by giving a foundation for the growth of a numerous kinds of seaweed and compound animals, supports likewise a large number of fish. I have heard that a rock near the Bermutus, lying many miles out at sea and at a considerable depth, was first discovered by the circumstance of fish having been observed in the Naprohood. San Salvador, Brazil, February 29th. The day had passed delightfully. Delight itself, however, is a weak term to express the feelings of a naturalist who, for the first time, has wandered by himself in a Brazilian forest. The elegance of the grasses, the novelty of the plants, the beauty of the flowers, the glossy green of the foliage, but above all, the general luxuriance of the vegetation filled me with admiration. A most paradoxical mixture of sound and silence pervades the shady parts of the wood.

The noise from the insects is so loud that it may be heard even in a vessel anchored several hundred yards from the shore. Yet, within the recesses of the forest, a universal silence appears to rain. To a person fond of natural history, such a day as this brings with it a deeper pleasure than he can ever hope to experience again. wandering about for some hours, I returned to the landing place, but before reaching it, I was overtaken by a tropical storm. I tried to find shelter under a tree, which was so thick that it would have never been penetrated by common English rain. But here, in a couple of minutes, a little torrent flowed down the trunk. It is to this heavy rain that we must attribute the verger at the bottom of the thickest woods. If the showers were like those of a colder climate, the greater part would be absorbed or evaporated before it reached the ground. I will not at present attempt to describe the gaudy scenery of this noble bay, because in our homeward voyage we called here a second time and I shall then have occasion to remark on it. along the whole coast of Brazil for a length of at least 2,000 miles, and certainly for a considerable space inland, wherever solid rock occurs, it belongs to a granite formation. The circumstance of this enormous area being constituted of materials which most geologists believe to have been crystallized when heated under pressure gives rise to many curious reflections. Was this effect produced beneath the depths of a profound ocean? Or did a covering of strata formally extend over it? Which has since been removed? Can we believe that any power acting for a time short of infinity could have denuded the granite over so many thousand square leagues.

March 18th.

We sailed. A few days afterwards, when not far distant from the islands, my attention was called to a reddish brown appearance in the sea. The whole surface of the water, as it appeared under a weak lens, seemed as if covered by chopped bits of hay with their ins jagged. Mr. Berkeley informs me that they are the same species with that found over large spaces in the Red Sea and once its name of Red Sea is derived. Their numbers must be infinite. The ship passed through several bands of them, one of which was about ten yards wide, judging from the mud-like color of the water, at least two and a half miles long. In almost every long voyage, some account is given of these contravese. They appear especially common in the sea near Australia, Captain Cook, in his third voyage, remarks that the sailors gave to this appearance the name of sea sawdust. Near Keeling-Atole in the Indian Ocean, I observed many little masses, a few inches square, consisting of long cylindrical threads of excessive thinness, so as to be barely visible to the naked eye. I mingle with other, rather larger bodies.

Finally, go. has to be barely visible to the naked eye, mingled with other, rather larger bodies, finally conical at both ends.