Chapter 1, pt4: Kingfishers

A kingfisher of the species Darwin saw in Cape Verde. Steve Garvie / CC BY-SA 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons

The broad, flat-bottomed valleys, many of which serve during a few days only in the season as watercourses, are clothed with thickets of leafless bushes. Few living creatures inhabit these valleys. The commonest bird is a kingfisher (Dacelo Iagoensis), which tamely sits on the branches of the castor-oil plant, and thence darts on grasshoppers and lizards. It is brightly coloured, 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.

Chapter 1, pt3: Porto Praya

Modern-day aerial image of Praia, the capital of Cape Verde. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons. 

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 bounded by an irregular chain of more lofty mountains. The scene, as 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 cocoa-nut trees, can be a judge of anything but his own happiness. The island would generally be considered as very uninteresting, but to any one 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 tracts 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 withers; and upon such naturally formed hay the animals live. It had not now rained for an entire year. When the island was discovered, the immediate neighbourhood of Porto Praya was clothed with trees, the reckless destruction of which has caused here, as at St. Helena, and at some of the Canary islands, almost entire sterility. 

Chapter 1, pt2: Tenerife

Mount Teide (known to Darwin as the Peak of Teneriffe) rising above the clouds. Photo by darksidex - flickr. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons. 

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.

Chapter 1, pt1: Departure

A modern-day view of Devonport and Plymouth from Google Earth.

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.

Introduction

As a student of geology and biology, I've been meaning for a long time to read Charles Darwin's The Voyage of the Beagle. It's been recommended to me left and right. In fact, I've started reading it several times. And the problem isn't that I don't find it interesting — the problem is that I can barely go a sentence without wanting to look something up, find a picture, or a map, or figure out what he means by "infusoria."

I wondered if maybe there was a book in existence that presented the text along with images and maps and explanations of the scientific phenomena Darwin notes — but if there is, I haven't found it. So I thought, why not try something along those lines myself, in the form of a blog?

While I have a degree in Geology and Biology, I am by no means an expert on, well, anything, so please use the comments to point out anything I've missed or misunderstood, or just cool stuff you want to add.

Thanks!
Maria