1. Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Saturday 9 January 1932, page 9
DARWIN AND THE
BEAGLE.
HARD THOUGHTS OF
AUSTRALIA.
By P. CROSBIE MORRISON.
A few days before the New Year just 100 years ago this week, H.M.S. Beagle, a
10 gun brig, left Devonport to sail round the world to complete charts of the coast of Patagonia and Tierra del
Fuego, in South America, and to carry a chain of chronometrical measure-ments round the globe. Smaller
than the bay steamer Edina and relying wholly on sail the Beagle occupied only a few weeks short of five
years on the voyage. The voyage and its result were sufficiently un-important to have been forgotten long
since but for one circumstance. A young Cambridge graduate in arts, aged only 21 years, was granted a free
passage in the Beagle as naturalist, and his observations during the voyage inspired him to devote the
remainder of his life to the study of the animal kingdom. Thus Charles Darwin
began the work that earned for him the title of "The Newton of Biology "
At that time Darwin had shown little aptitude and little inclination for seri-ous study. His principal
occupation was the collection of insects and birds' eggs. Pro-fessor Henslow at Cambridge realised the young
man's interest in natural history,
and in geology. Professor Sedgwick nursed
the latent spark of genius which was to burst into a flaming beacon to lighten the
gloom of biological science. It was Professor Henslow who obtained for Darwin the invitation to accompany
Captain FitzRoy in the Beagle as naturalist without pay.
Darwin took with him on the voyage Lyell's "Principles of Geology ". To the reading of that book he ascribed
his own geological progress and much of his train-
ing in scientific thought. He left England as a raw student, long despaired or by most of his tutors. He
returned to find himself already famous as a geologist and biolo-gist.
His most profound impression through-out his voyage was the remarkable manner in which animals and
plants were adapted to their environment. The existence in similar surroundings of similar species of life
although in countries widely separated; the fossil evidence of extinct animals which had not been able to
survive the exacting conditions of the earth as it was develop-ing around them, and the influence of bar-
rriers to migration, such as the Andes of South America, on the fauna of the dis-
tricts which they separated, all caused him to muse on the origin of species, on the con ditions causing one
species to survive and another to become extinct, on the struggle for existence, and on the theory of evolu-
tion which he developed so strikingly in
later life.
How "Darwinism" Began
Charles Darwin was by no means the first to hit at an ordered plan through which the animal kingdom might
have evolved from simpler organisms. Lamark, in the previous centur, had stated clearly his belief that
certain highly specialised animals had proceeded by a series of evo-lutionary changes from something
2. simpler. Charles Darwin s grandfather Dr Erasmus Darwin, had expounded similar ideas con-cerning certain
birds, and a few scientists had followed in a desultory way these frag-mentary observations. But Charles
Darwin was the first to link his convictions with cold logic. Courage and confidence were his conspicuous
attributes. Convinced that his deductions vvere correct, he made series after series of observations, all of
which convinced him further that all nature was in a state of flux. As generation succeeded generation
differences appeared among in-dividuals within each species. In the struggle for existence any of these differ-
ences which was helpful survived, and the unfit went to the wall; and so new species were evolved and old
forms perished. His first published account of these observations and deductions, "The Origin of Species"
was received with open hostility. "Varia-tion in Animals and Plants, Under Domesti-cation ' did little to
appease and much to aggravate his critics. But when following his deductions to their logical conclusions he
included man in his scheme of evolu-tion and published "The Descent ol Man",
he was denounced from every pulpit as a heretic, and his book was desrcibed as the work of the devil.
Darwin's inescapable logic and insistence on known facts caused many of his bitterest opponents to
investigate his work closely with the object of discovering a fallacy in it. The result was that Charles Darwin
gained a following of learned men, who were forced, against all their preconceived ideas, to accept his
doctrine. It was this insist-euee on pure logic and irrefutable facts as the only admissible ingredients in a bio-
logical theory that gained for Darwin an immortal name among biologists. The theory of evolution today is
embraced by all biologists, and even by physicists and chemists who have applied it to the evolu-tion of the
atom and of the chemual ele-ments. But it is a vastly different fabric from that which Darwin wove. In the
light of later research, most of the detail of Dar-win's original work is almost unrecongis-able. Darwin stands
out, however, for the inescapable logic of his work, for his courageous disregard of hos-tility to what he
believed to be n piotound tiiith, and foi the stimulus which his devo tion gave to ordeted biological research
He moio thin any otlici man i u-e 1 nuti ral histoiy norn a nicle cataloguing of mumal planto to a j hilouoplut
il -ciel ce
The Australian Fauna
Of particular interest to Australians are Darwin's impressions ol this continent, which he saw in the infancy of
its develop-
ment. Surfeited with the wonders which he had seen in South America, and reduced to a condtion of abject
misery by five years of seasickness, to which he never ceased to be susceptible, he treated the Australian
fauna with scant notice. The fact that here was a collection of pre-historic animals, links between reptiles,
birds, and mammals still roaming the earth, lef him unmoved. Of the platypus he merely observes, "Mr
Browne shot one; certainly it is a most extraordinary animal; a stuffed speci-men docs not at all give a good
idea of the appearance of the head and beak when fresh; the latter becoming hard and con-tracted." Of the
kangaroo there is in his diary but a passing reference to its in-creasing scarcity and inevitable extinc-
tion.
In the light of a century of progress some of Darwin's notes on social life in Australia are extraordinary. After
travel-
ling from Sydney to Bathust, and visiting many of the farms in New South Wales, he wrote: "I was
disappointed at the state of society. The whole community is divided into parties on almost every subject.
Among those who, from their station in life ought to be the best, many live in such open profligacy that re-
spectable people cannot associate with
them. There are many serious drawbacks to the comforts of a family, the chief of which perhaps is being
surrounded by con-vict servants . . . The female servants are, of course much worse, hence children learn the
vilest expressions, and it is fortunate if not equally vile ideas. I am not aware that the tone of society has
assumed any peculiar character, but with such habits and without intellectual pursuits it can hardly fail to
deteriorate. My opinion is that nothing but rather sharp necessity should compel me to emigrate."
3. For the benefit of his readers in Britain Darwin translates in his diary some of the Australian colloquial terms.
" A 'squat-ter' is a freed or ticket-of-leave man who builds a hut with bark on unoccupied ground, buys or
steals a few animals, sells spirits without a licence, receives stolen goods, and so at last becomes rich and
turns farmer. A 'crawler' is an assigned convict who runs away and lives how he can by labour and petty theft.
A bush-ranger is an open villain who subsists by highway robbery and plunder; gener-ally he is desperate,
and will sooner be killed than taken alive. In the country it is necessary to understand these three names, for
they are in common use." As Darwin sailed from Australia for Lon-don early in 1836, he wrote a characteris-
tic envoi. In his diary of March 14 he wrote: "Farewell, Australia! You are a rising child, and doubtless some
day will reign a great princess in the sought; but you are too great and ambitious for affec-tion, yet not great
enough for respect. I leave your shores without sorrow or re-
gret.
