A Naturalist's Voyage. Journal Of Researches Into The Natural History And Geology Of The Countries Visited During The Voyage Of Hms Beagle Round The World. Under The Command Of Captain Fitz Roy Darwin, Charles Natural History

8vo. (xii), 500 pp. Publisher's green cloth, gilt lettered to spine and with gilt vignette to upper board, two later owners' names ink stamped to the front free endpaper, one repeated on the half title. Frontispiece portrait. Light wear to the head of the spine, else a decent copy. "It is impossible to overrate the influence of the voyage on Darwin's career: it was both his education and his opportunity.He left England untried and almost uneducated for science, he returned a successful collector, a practised and brilliant geologist, and with a wide general knowledge of zoology gained at first hand in many parts of the world" (DNB). The lessons learnt and specimens taken around the world led directly to "The Origin of Species" 20 years later. Freeman, 58.