The Voyage of the Beagle. Darwin Charles
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Название: The Voyage of the Beagle
Автор: Darwin Charles
Издательство: Public Domain
Жанр: Зарубежная классика
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10
M. Lesson (Voyage de la Coquille, tom. i., p. 255) mentions red water off Lima, apparently produced by the same cause. Peron, the distinguished naturalist, in the Voyage aux Terres Australes, gives no less than twelve references to voyagers who have alluded to the discoloured waters of the sea (vol. ii. p. 239). To the references given by Peron may be added, Humboldt's Pers. Narr., vol. vi. p. 804; Flinder's Voyage, vol. i. p. 92; Labillardiere, vol. i. p. 287; Ulloa's Voyage; Voyage of the Astrolabe and of the Coquille; Captain King's Survey of Australia, etc.
11
Venda, the Portuguese name for an inn.
12
Annales des Sciences Naturelles for 1833.
13
I have described and named these species in the Annals of Nat. Hist., vol. xiv. p. 241.
14
I am greatly indebted to Mr. Waterhouse for his kindness in naming for me this and many other insects, and giving me much valuable assistance.
15
Kirby's Entomology, vol. ii. p. 317.
16
Mr. Doubleday has lately described (before the Entomological Society, March 3rd, 1845) a peculiar structure in the wings of this butterfly, which seems to be the means of its making its noise. He says, "It is remarkable for having a sort of drum at the base of the fore wings, between the costal nervure and the subcostal. These two nervures, moreover, have a peculiar screw-like diaphragm or vessel in the interior." I find in Langsdorff's travels (in the years 1803-7, p. 74) it is said, that in the island of St. Catherine's on the coast of Brazil, a butterfly called Februa Hoffmanseggi, makes a noise, when flying away, like a rattle.
17
I may mention, as a common instance of one day's (June 23rd) collecting, when I was not attending particularly to the Coleoptera, that I caught sixty-eight species of that order. Among these, there were only two of the Carabidae, four Brachelytra, fifteen Rhyncophora, and fourteen of the Chrysomelidae. Thirty-seven species of Arachnidae, which I brought home, will be sufficient to prove that I was not paying overmuch attention to the generally favoured order of Coleoptera.
18
In a MS. in the British Museum by Mr. Abbott, who made his observations in Georgia; see Mr. A. White's paper in the "Annals of Nat. Hist.," vol. vii. p. 472. Lieut. Hutton has described a sphex with similar habits in India, in the "Journal of the Asiatic Society," vol. i. p. 555.
19
Don Felix Azara (vol. i. p. 175), mentioning a hymenopterous insect, probably of the same genus, says he saw it dragging a dead spider through tall grass, in a straight line to its nest, which was one hundred and sixty-three paces distant. He adds that the wasp, in order to find the road, every now and then made "demi-tours d'environ trois palmes."
20
Azara's Voyage, vol. i. p. 213
21
Hearne's Journey, p. 383.
22
Maclaren, art. "America," Encyclop. Brittann.
23
Azara says, "Je crois que la quantite annuelle des pluies est, dans toutes ces contrees, plus considerable qu'en Espagne." – Vol. i. p. 36.
24
In South America I collected altogether twenty-seven species of mice, and thirteen more are known from the works of Azara and other authors. Those collected by myself have been named and described by Mr. Waterhouse at the meetings of the Zoological Society. I must be allowed to take this opportunity of returning my cordial thanks to Mr. Waterhouse, and to the other gentleman attached to that Society, for their kind and most liberal assistance on all occasions.
25
In the stomach and duodenum of a capybara which I opened I found a very large quantity of a thin yellowish fluid, in which scarcely a fibre could be distinguished. Mr. Owen informs me that a part of the oesophagus is so constructed that nothing much larger than a crowquill can be passed down. Certainly the broad teeth and strong jaws of this animal are well fitted to grind into pulp the aquatic plants on which it feeds.
26
At the R. Negro, in Northern Patagonia, there is an animal of the same habits, and probably a closely allied species, but which I never saw. Its noise is different from that of the Maldonado kind; it is repeated only twice instead of three or four times, and is more distinct and sonorous; when heard from a distance it so closely resembles the sound made in cutting down a small tree with an axe, that I have sometimes remained in doubt concerning it.
27
Philosoph. Zoolog., tom. i. p. 242.
28
Magazine of Zoology and Botany, vol. i. p. 217.
29
Read before the Academy of Sciences in Paris. L'Institut, 1834, p. 418.
30
Geolog. Transact. vol. ii. p. 528. In the Philosoph. Transact. (1790, p. 294) Dr. Priestly has described some imperfect siliceous tubes and a melted pebble of quartz, found in digging into the ground, under a tree, where a man had been killed by lightning.
31
Annals de Chimie et de Physique, tom. xxxvii. p. 319.
32
Azara's Voyage, vol. i. p. 36.
33
The corral is an enclosure made of tall and strong stakes. Every estancia, or farming estate, has one attached to it.
34
The hovels of the Indians are thus called.
35
Report of the Agricult. Chem. Assoc. in the Agricult. Gazette, 1845, p. 93.
36
Linnaean Trans., vol. xi. p. 205. It is remarkable how all the circumstances connected with the salt-lakes in Siberia and Patagonia are similar. Siberia, like Patagonia, appears to have been recently elevated above the waters of the sea. In both countries the salt-lakes occupy shallow depressions in the plains; in both the mud on the borders is black and fetid; beneath the crust of common salt, sulphate of soda or of magnesium occurs, imperfectly crystallized; and in both, the muddy sand is mixed with lentils of gypsum. The Siberian salt-lakes are inhabited by small crustaceous animals; and flamingoes (Edin. New Philos. Jour., Jan 1830) likewise frequent them. As these circumstances, apparently so trifling, occur in two distant continents, we may feel sure that they are the necessary results of a common cause – See Pallas's Travels, 1793 to 1794, pp. 129 – 134.
37
I am bound to express in the strongest terms, my obligation to the government of Buenos Ayres for the obliging manner in which passports to all parts of the country were given me, as naturalist of the Beagle.
38
This prophecy has turned out entirely and miserably wrong. 1845.
39
Voyage dans l'Amerique Merid. par M. A. d'Orbigny. Part. Hist. tom. i. p. 664.
40
Since this was written, M. Alcide d'Orbingy has examined these shells, and pronounces them all to be recent.
41
M. Aug. Bravard has described, in a Spanish work ('Observaciones Geologicas,' 1857), this district, and he believes that the bones of the extinct mammals were washed out of the underlying Pampean deposit, and subsequently became embedded with the still existing shells; but I am not convinced by his remarks. M. Bravard believes that the whole enormous Pampean deposit is a sub-aerial formation, like sand-dunes: this seems to me to be an untenable doctrine.
42
Principles of Geology, vol. iv. p. 40.
43
This theory was first developed in the Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle, and subsequently in Professor Owen's Memoir on Mylodon robustus.
44
I mean this to exclude the total amount which may have been successively produced and consumed during a given period.
45
Travels in the Interior of South Africa, vol. ii. p. 207
46
The elephant which was killed at Exeter Change was estimated (being partly weighed) at five tons and a half. The elephant actress, as I was informed, weighed one ton less; so that we may take five as the average of a full-grown elephant. I was told at the Surry Gardens, that a hippopotamus which was sent to England cut up into pieces was СКАЧАТЬ