Narrative of the surveying voyages of his majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle (vol.3)

606 coNCLUSiox. Oct. 1836. human reason, or at least of arts consequent on that reason. I do not behave it is possible to describe or paint the differ- ence between savage and civihzed man. It is the diflference between a wild and tame animal : and part of the interest in beholding a savage, is the same which would lead every one to desire to see the lion in his desert, the tiger tearing his prey in the jungle, the rhinoceros on the wide plain, or the hippopotamus wallowing in the mud of some African river. Among the other most remarkable spectacles which we have beheld, may be ranked the stars of the southern hemi- sphere — the water-spout — the glacier leading its blue stream of ice in a bold precipice overhanging the sea — a lagoon island raised by the coral-forming polypi — an active vol- cano — and the overwhelming effects of a violent earthquake. The three latter phenomena, perhaps, possess for me a pecuhar interest, from their intimate connexion with the geological structure of the world. The earthquake must however, be to every one a most impressive event: the earth, considered from our earliest childhood as the type of solidity, has oscillated like a thin crust beneath our feet ; and in seeing the most beautiful and laboured works of man in a moment overthrown, we feel the insignificance of his boasted power. It has been said, that the love of the chase is an inherent delight in man — a relic of an instinctive passion. If so, I am sure the pleasure of living in the open air, with the sky for a roof, and the ground for a table, is part of the same feeling: it is the savage returning to his wild and native habits. I always look back to our boat cruises, and my land journeys, when through unfrequented countries, with a kind of extreme delight, which no scenes of civilization could have created. I do not doubt that every traveller must remember the glowing sense of happiness he experienced, from the simple consciousness of breathing in a foreign cUme, where the civilized man has seldom or never trod. There are several other sources of enjoyment in a long voyage, which are, perhaps, of a more reasonable nature.