Las Islas Galápagos
16th September, 1835
"The next day we ran near Hood's Isd & there left the Whale boat. In the evening the Yawl was also sent away on a surveying cruize of some length. The weather now & during the passage has continued as on the coast of Peru, a steady, gentle breeze of wind & gloomy sky. We landed...on the N.W. end of Chatham Isd. These islands at a distance have a sloping uniform outline, excepting where broken by sundry paps & hillocks; the black Lava, completely covered by small leafless brushwood & low trees.
The fragments of Lava where most porous, are reddish like cinders; the stunted trees show little signs of life. The black rocks heated by the rays of the Vertical sun, like a stove, give to the air a close & sultry feeling. The country [is as] we might imagine the cultivated parts of the Infernal regions to be."
17th September, 1835
"This day, we now being only 40 miles from the Equator, has been the first warm one; up to this time all on board have worn cloth clothese [sic], & although no one would complain of cold, still less would they of too much warmth.
These islands appear paradises for the whole family of Reptiles. Besides Turtles, the Tortoise is so abundant that [a] single Ship's company here caught 500-800 in a short time. The black Lava rocks on the beach are frequented by large and most disgusting, clumsy Lizards. They crawl over the porous volcanic rocks & seek their prey from the Sea. Somebody calls them “imps of darkness.”
They assuredly well become the land they inhabit."
The Diary of Charles Darwin - On the voyage of H.M.S Beagle, 1835
