The cabin Darwin had occupied on the clumsy "Beagle," was his home from
Plymouth to the Cape. Instead of sleeping in a bunk he swung a hammock,
which he regarded as the better sea-going bed. Though no yacht in heels,
the "Beagle" had her own qualities for rough weather, and she behaved
loyally towards her passengers. All the water supply had to be carried in
casks, with the effect, under a blazing sun, that it soon grew bad. The
ship called at South America, where Sir George had his first revelation
of nature, as she blooms in the gorgeous tropics. The colour, richness,
luxuriance, dazzled him; the more so that he had not read any description
of the tropics, which adequately conveyed the sentiments they inspired.
He walked on shore of an evening, and the feelings engendered in him by
the scene were wild, of a truth indescribable. He turned from the
luxuriant foliage, to the stars aflame above, and he followed the
fireflies as they danced. The woods were vocal with the hum of insect
life, and balm loaded the breezes as they blew softly. These things at
first oppressed his senses as so novel, so strange, that his mind almost
hovered between the realms of fact and fancy.
'And you ask me of the sea,' he chatted; 'to which I answer that it has
always made an impression on me, best described as a mixture of awe and
gladness.
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