cover image FOSSILS, FINCHES, AND FUEGIANS: Darwin's Adventures and Discoveries on the Beagle

FOSSILS, FINCHES, AND FUEGIANS: Darwin's Adventures and Discoveries on the Beagle

Richard Darwin Keynes, R. D. Keynes, . . Oxford Univ., $35 (460pp) ISBN 978-0-19-516649-1

Most accounts of Charles Darwin's epochal voyage around the world on the HMS Beagle between 1831 and 1836 concentrate on the month he spent in the Galápagos Islands in the fall of 1835, where he made the observations of finches, mockingbirds and turtles that would play such an important role in his theory of natural selection. Here Darwin's great-grandson, editor of his Beagle diary, takes readers on the scientist's complete circumnavigation of the globe. Darwin spent many months on the east coast of South America and down in Tierra del Fuego, where he honed his observational skills. Many readers will be surprised to learn that Darwin was as interested in geology as he was in biology; he correctly surmised that the coast of Chile had become elevated by thousands of feet over millennia. He also collected remains of previously unknown prehistoric animals and plants. Darwin's notes and letters, copiously quoted here, show him to have been a keen observer of people as well, whether native peoples he encountered or gauchos, rebellious South American generals or escaped convicts in New Zealand. He even had a brief meeting with royalty in the person of the queen of Tahiti. Keynes shows readers how his great-grandfather's belief in the immutability of species slowly began to change during his travels. Handsomely illustrated with sketches and paintings made by Darwin and others associated with the Beagle, this is an excellent introduction to the events that led 20 years later to On the Origin of Species. (Aug.)