visited, have been wholly due to Captain Fitz Roy, I hope I may here be
permitted to repeat my expression of gratitude to him; and to add that,
during the five years we were together, I received from him the most
cordial friendship and steady assistance. Both to Captain Fitz Roy and
to all the Officers of the Beagle [1] I shall ever feel most thankful
for the undeviating kindness with which I was treated during our long
voyage.
This volume contains, in the form of a Journal, a history of our
voyage, and a sketch of those observations in Natural History and
Geology, which I think will possess some interest for the general
reader. I have in this edition largely condensed and corrected some
parts, and have added a little to others, in order to render the volume
more fitted for popular reading; but I trust that naturalists will
remember, that they must refer for details to the larger publications
which comprise the scientific results of the Expedition. The Zoology
of the Voyage of the Beagle includes an account of the Fossil Mammalia,
by Professor Owen; of the Living Mammalia, by Mr. Waterhouse; of the
Birds, by Mr. Gould; of the Fish, by the Rev. L. Jenyns; and of the
Reptiles, by Mr. Bell. I have appended to the descriptions of each
species an account of its habits and range. These works, which I owe
to the high talents and disinterested zeal of the above distinguished
authors, could not have been undertaken, had it not been for the
liberality of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, who,
through the representation of the Right Honourable the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, have been pleased to grant a sum of one thousand pounds
towards defraying part of the expenses of publication.
I have myself published separate volumes on the 'Structure and
Distribution of Coral Reefs;' on the 'Volcanic Islands visited during
the Voyage of the Beagle;' and on the 'Geology of South America.' The
sixth volume of the 'Geological Transactions' contains two papers of
mine on the Erratic Boulders and Volcanic Phenomena of South America.
Messrs. Waterhouse, Walker, Newman, and White, have published several
able papers on the Insects which were collected, and I trust that many
others will hereafter follow. The plants from the southern parts of
America will be given by Dr. J. Hooker, in his great work on the Botany
of the Southern Hemisphere. The Flora of the Galapagos Archipelago is
the subject of a separate memoir by him, in the 'Linnean Transactions.'
The Reverend Professor Henslow has published a list of the plants
2