Friday, February 7, 2014

My Year of Darwin (2/7/2014)

 Charles Darwin

"I find my collections are increasing wonderfully, & from Rio I think I shall be obliged to aend a cargo home.- All the endless delays, which we experienced at Plymouth, have been most fortunate, as I verily believe no person ever went out better provided for collecting & observing in the different branches of Natural hist[ory]." -Charles Darwin, Voyage of the Beagle

The launch of the Beagle was delayed for weeks due to a series of storms. In the meantime, Darwin was learning collecting techniques and gathering tools for geologizing and biological collecting. So far he has been collecting rocks and animals around some Atlantic islands and in the Atlantic rainforest around Bahia. Hard to say if Darwin was well known in scientific circles back home. He was schmoozing with the big guns of science at the time as a student. But once his collections reach London, all that will change. 

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