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In 1832, Charles Darwin, then twenty-two, joined the crew of the HMS Beagle on a survey expedition bound for South America and the Pacific. As a naturalist, his role was to record—and collect specimens of—any notable flora, fauna, or geological formations.
The Beagle returned to England nearly five years later, having circumnavigated the globe. The voyage would prove to be a turning point, both for Darwin and for the natural sciences: his exposure to a vast array of life forms, living and extinct, set his mind at work on the question of the origin of species. Why do certain forms of life recur, with subtle but striking variations, across time and space? Why do some species die off, to be replaced by newer counterparts? Two decades later, Darwin proposed his theory of evolution by natural selection, still the prevailing paradigm in the biological sciences.
Darwin’s record of his early travels, The Voyage of the Beagle (1839), is an essential text for several reasons. For students of biology and intellectual history, it serves as the seedbed of evolutionary theory, wherein one can see Darwin’s ideas germinating. For naturalists of all stripes, it stands as an example of rich and detailed field observation. For writers, it demonstrates how writing can be both literary and scientific, with a tone that is humorous, engaging, and precise.