62 pages • 2 hours read
The Voyage of the Beagle
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Themes
The Adaptation of Species to Their Environment
Content Warning: This section references racism and imperialism.
The adaptation of species to their environment is the single most important theme developed in The Voyage of the Beagle. Darwin’s observations during the five-year journey were essential to shaping his ideas about the evolution of species and the role of natural selection in driving biological diversity.
One of Darwin’s key insights is that different environments support different species, which evolve traits over time to suit their environment. Examples of this appear throughout The Voyage of the Beagle. In Argentina, for example, Darwin observes flamingoes feeding on small worms burrowing into seemingly inhabitable salt plains. Darwin is surprised to find such large birds living in such an inhospitable place, and he wonders how the worms they eat can survive in such salty mud. He notes that similar salt plains exist in Siberia and that flamingoes have been recorded feeding on small worms on those plains too. The similarity is too remarkable to be a coincidence; he writes, “As these circumstances, apparently so trifling, occur in two distant continents, we may feel sure that they are the necessary results of common causes. Well may we affirm that every part of the world is habitable!” (69). For Darwin, the similar behavior of two species living in similar but disparate landscapes suggests a “common cause”: namely, the adaptation of these species to the harsh realities of their environment. The adaptation of Argentinian and Siberian flamingoes to salty worms, and the worms to the salty mud, suggests that each of these species has adapted to survive in its respective environment.
Darwin’s time in the Galapagos islands offers him the clearest evidence of the adaptation of species to specific locations. He describes the archipelago as a world unto itself and suggests that it offers scientists the opportunity to observe “the first appearance of new beings on this earth” (351). Most remarkably, each of the islands seems to be inhabited by its own unique species. Thirty of the plants Darwin records on James Island, for example, appear nowhere else in the world—not even on the other islands in the archipelago. Darwin is astonished by the biodiversity of the Galapagos, but even more surprised to find that the related species on individual islands fill similar roles within their respective environments:
It is the circumstance that several of the islands possess their own species of the tortoise, mocking-thrush, finches, and numerous plants, these species having the same general habits, occupying analogous situations, and obviously filling the same place in the natural economy of the archipelago, that strikes me with wonder (468-69, emphasis added).
Darwin sees the development of unique species performing similar roles in their environments as clear proof of the adaptation of species. Each new species develops to suit its environmental needs, allowing the individual species, and the environment as a whole, to thrive. The delicate balance between species informs Darwin’s understanding of the Galapagos as a “little world.” Each species has a role to play, and Darwin sees adaptation as essential to the development of those roles.
Uniformitarianism and the Gradual Process of Geological Change
Darwin’s geological observations during his journey contributed to his ideas about the slow, gradual processes that have shaped landscapes over millions of years. Darwin’s geological work was profoundly inspired by Charles Lyell, whose Principles of Geology Darwin carried onboard the Beagle. In the 19th century, prevailing geological wisdom held that formations like canyons, mountains, and cliffs were formed quickly by catastrophic incidents; Lyell and Darwin instead believed that geological change happened over millions of years. This principle, called uniformitarianism, asserts that the same geological processes that shape the Earth today have been at work throughout its history.
Darwin’s writings document his astonishment at the evidence of geological change he encountered during his travels, from the uplifts and folds of the Andes to the erosional features of the Patagonian landscape. The shingle terraces that form the banks of mountain rivers in the Andes offer Darwin a clear example of how new landscapes can form:
I am convinced that the shingle terraces were accumulated, during the gradual elevation of the Cordillera, but the torrents delivering, at successive levels, their detritus on the beach-heads of long narrow arms of the sea, first high up in the valleys, then lower and lower down as the land slowly rose. If this be so, and I cannot doubt it, the grand and broken chain of the Cordillera, instead of having been suddenly thrown up […] has been slowly upheaved in mass, in the same gradual manner as the coasts of the Atlantic and the Pacific have risen within the recent period (294-95).
For Darwin, the gradual rise of the banks as the rivers deposit mud and silt provides powerful evidence for slow geological change. If the movement of a single river in South America can change a landscape, oceans could surely alter the shape of continents across geological time.
The coral reefs of the South Pacific offer Darwin evidence for slow geological change in the present. In Mauritius, Darwin observes massive coral islands nearly 10 miles across. His observation of them suggests that the entire island was once a living coral. He demonstrates that these islands were formed by the slow accumulation of coral skeletons over thousands of years and suggests that the slow, gradual formation of these types of islands complicates the catastrophic theory of geological change.
Darwin’s observations of the landscapes of South America and the South Pacific work in tandem with his observations of the regions’ species. In both cases, Darwin’s findings lead him to believe that change in the natural world is a gradual and ongoing process. The vast time scales involved are part of what has made Darwin’s work controversial, as they render human history a mere blip in the history of the Earth and of life on it. Darwin feels something of this, often remarking on the difficulty of conceptualizing such processes, but he ultimately finds the thought as inspiring as it is humbling.
Human Diversity and the Challenges of Cultural Exchange
The Voyage of the Beagle is primarily known for its contributions to the fields of natural history and evolutionary science, but it also features Darwin’s observations on human diversity and the challenges of cultural exchange. The Indigenous customs and practices Darwin encountered offered him the opportunity to explore how societies develop in response to their physical surroundings. However, his efforts to apply a scientific lens to human culture are complicated by the fact that the HMS Beagle was commissioned by the British Navy, making Darwin’s observations inherently connected to the project of empire.
Darwin finds what he considers one of the most striking examples of human diversity among the Indigenous peoples of Tierra del Fuego, whom he describes as “the most abject and miserable creatures [he] anywhere beheld” (200). Darwin’s description of their life is bleak:
These poor wretches were stunted in their growth, their hideous faces bedaubed with white paint, their skins filthy and greasy, their hair entangled, their voices discordant, and their gestures violent. Viewing such men, one can hardly make oneself believe that they are fellow-creatures, and inhabitants of the same world (200).
Darwin is horrified by the living conditions he finds at Tierra del Fuego, and this passage suggests that he struggles to find humanity in the Indigenous Fuegians. Darwin, who is actively developing the theory of natural selection, concludes that suboptimal living conditions are best suited to suboptimal life forms. He writes that Nature “has fitted the Fuegian to the climate and the productions of his miserable country” (203).
The story of the three kidnapped Fuegians—Jemmy Button, York Minster, and Fuegia Basket—complicates Darwin’s assumptions about the “inferiority” of the Fuegian way of life and demonstrates the challenges of cultural exchange. While in England, the Fuegians learned English, adapted to English clothing customs, and formed close relationships with Europeans. When they are returned to Tierra del Fuego, Darwin assumes that Jemmy Button, York Minster, and Fuegia Basket will recognize the “inferiority” of their Indigenous way of life and want to return to England. He is surprised to find that all three quickly reunite with their families and that, despite their temporary exile to Europe, they can and do relearn their traditions. This episode challenges Darwin’s belief that Indigenous ways of living are inherently “inferior” to their European counterparts. The joyful return of the kidnapped Indigenous people leads Darwin to conclude that they must be content and happy enough to enjoy life and living.
Though Darwin finds his theories do not apply as neatly to human society as they do to the development of species, his observations on human diversity would influence his later work on the evolution of human beings. In The Descent of Man, Darwin argues that humans are not a unique and separate creation but rather part of the broader web of life on Earth, subject to the same processes of natural selection and evolution as other species. This idea challenged many of the prevailing assumptions about human beings at the time and helped pave the way for modern evolutionary theory.
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