Charles Darwin's Traverse of the South Pacific: A New Appraisal

H.M.S. Beagle in 1835-36 spent 127 days on the transect of South Pacific Ocean with Charles Darwin aboard. 54 those were or near island environments as ship visited several Islands Galápagos, main Tahiti and Bay Islands, New Zealand: also had good views about a dozen other islands. His methods working largely similar to that adopted sectors voyage – transects Atlantic Indian Oceans. He was relatively well-equipped, observed recorded carefully, constantly revising his notes new information came hand he compared one environment another. Although there are few signs evolutionary insights at this stage, using conceptual frameworks important him later. Thus, interested behaviour animals, sometimes an ecological approach, considering landscapes context change through geological time. There already adopting ‘Lyellian' gradualist viewpoint, particularly development volcanic coral This paper evaluates these visits, where appropriate, making comparisons recent visits by present author, which has attempted ‘to take archives field' comparing situation Darwin's records.