Download Charles Darwin`s journal

September 1st, 1831
Hello ladies and gentleman, my name is Charles Darwin. Today started like any
other day. It’s the first day of bird hunting season so I started gathering my
supplies to go hunt when I discovered a letter sitting on my chair. When I opened
the letter, I found to my surprise that all my hopes and dreams had been
answered!
It was an invitation to set sail on board the H.M.S. Beagle as the ship’s naturalist!
A naturalist is a person who studies life and nature. My father doesn’t want me
to go, but I know I can change his mind!
December 27th, 1831
We have had many delays due to weather and the horrible condition the H.M.S.
Beagle was in. Today we set sail with a crew of seventy-three men and myself.
There’s a slight wind coming out of the east and a little bit of rain. My stomach
is very upset-I think I am sea sick.
December 28th, 1831
I have been sick all day and I’m starting to dread this voyage. I’m only 21 years
old, what was I thinking?
August 22nd, 1832
I have been collecting all sorts of fossils and am puzzled by the great variety of
life I’m seeing. How can the birds I see in South America look the same as the
birds I’ve seen in England? They say that God created each animal to fit into his
own land, but a lot of these animals look alike and they are in different lands.
November 14th, 1833
I’ve found the bones of an animal I’ve never seen before. It was buried under
shells like it had been under the ocean. How did this animal become extinct, and
why was it under the water?
February 20, 1835
Today I woke up with fear in my stomach. My whole room was shaking and
things were flying around. I looked out my window and watched whole buildings
collapse. People were running everywhere screaming and yelling. As the
trembling stopped, I realized that I had just lived through an earthquake.
After my terrifying morning, I decided to go explore the island. I noticed that
areas of land had risen a few feet due to the earthquake. This is very exciting
because it is evidence that the Andes Mountains, and indeed all of South America,
is very slowly rising above the ocean. This confirms Charles Lyell's theory that
land masses rise a little bit at a time over a very long period of time. Given this
fact, I must accept the idea that the earth must be extremely old.
September 15, 1835
We’ve had our first sighting of the Galapagos Islands.
September 16, 1835
I’ve been exploring the Galapagos Islands and I’m very interested in its black lava
rocky shore, and the raw hostile environment of the island. On this island, I’ve
seen many interesting creatures. These islands and the plants and animals on
these islands have made me start thinking more and more about my theory of
“change over time” or evolution. Here are some of my drawings and notes from
my trip:
Look at the Galapagos iguanas-they have really large claws which are good for
clinging to the slippery rocks. The iguanas I saw in South America have smaller
claws for climbing trees. This makes me wonder if they had a common ancestor
and then became specialized, or adapted to their environments.
The Galapagos finches also are interesting to me-all of them are basically the
same but have different beaks which allow them to eat different things. How is
this possible?
June 3rd, 1836
The H.M.S. Beagle arrived in Cape Town today, and I decided to go to shore to
visit a fellow scientist. I was pleased to discover that Herschel had a keen interest
in natural history. We spent all day talking about volcanoes, earthquakes, the
movement of continents, the origin of mankind, and how new species come into
being.
October 2nd, 1836
After a voyage of four years, nine months, five days the H.M.S. Beagle finally
reached England again. I went home immediately to write about my findings.
November 22 1859
Today my book, "The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection: Or, the
Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life" was published. It talks
about evolution through natural selection. My voyage on the Beagle and the
scientists I’ve talked to have helped me better understand the nature of life. Here
are some of my thoughts on it.
1. The main point of this book is evolution through natural selection.
2. Evolution is the gradual change in the characteristics of a species over
time. Basically what I’m saying is that as different species, or different
groups of organisms like people, birds, dogs, etc. go through generations,
they change in different ways.
3. A species is a group of organisms whose members look alike and can have
kids together.
4. Natural selection is survival of the fittest which means that only the strong
survive. The formal definition for natural selection is that organisms with
more favorable genes in the environment survive, reproduce and pass on
their genes while less successful individuals do not survive. What happens
is that some organisms can live better in their environment so they survive
longer and have more kids. This means that their genes are passed on to
more often. An example of this would be with fish. A fast fish is more
likely to survive than a slow fish because it can get away from things that
eat it. More fast fish than slow fish have kids because they can survive
longer, so eventually, the population of fish is entirely fast fish.
5. The main point of my book is that I feel that evolution occurs through
natural selection. Species grow and “change over time” (evolve) because
of certain traits that make them more or less successful (natural selection).