Darwin at the Cape

South African Journal of Science

Volumn 100, Issue 5-6, 2004, Pages 243-248

  Barnard, Wilhelm S ^a  

^a STELLENBOSCH UNIVERSITY   (South Africa)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DOCUMENTARY SOURCE; EXPLORATION; HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY; NINETEENTH CENTURY;

AFRICA; CAPE PENINSULA; SOUTH AFRICA; SOUTHERN AFRICA; SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA; WESTERN CAPE;

EID: 4344714472     PISSN: 00382353     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (78)

1. Stanbury D. (Ed.) (1977). In A Narrative of the Voyage of HMS Beagle being Passages of the Narrative written by Captain Robert FitzRoy, Introduction, p. 8. Folio Society, London.
2. FitzRoy R. (1836). Sketch of the surveying voyages of HMS Adventure and Beagle. J. R. Geogr. Soc. 6, 311.
3. Hattersley A.F. (1969). An Illustrated Social History of Southern Africa, part 2, p. 150. Balkema, Cape Town.
4. Armstrong P. (1985). Charles Darwin, 1809-1882. Geographers: Biobibliographical Studies 6, 38-45.
5. Burkhardt F. and Smith S. (Eds) (1985). The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vols 1 and 4. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
6. Barlow N. (1958). The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, 1809-1882. Collins, London.
7. Desmond A. and Moore J. (1992). Darwin. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth.
8. Keynes R.D. (Ed.) (1988). Charles Darwin's Beagle Diary. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
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11. Lyell C. (1830, 1832, 1833). Principles of Geology, vols 1-3. John Murray and Albemarle, London.
12. Herbert S. (1986). Darwin as a geologist. Sci. Am. 254(5), 94-101.
13. Herbert S. (1992). Charles Darwin as a prospective geological author. Br. J. Hist. Sci. 24, 159-192.
14. Darwin F. (1902). Charles Darwin: His Life told in an Autobiographical Chapter, and in a Selected Series of his Published Papers, p. 135, 2nd edn. John Murray, London.
15. Keynes R.D. (1988), op. cit., p. xxi.
16. Desmond A. and Moore J. (1992), op. cit., 131. Darwin's diary eventually comprised 751 written pages among which the section of ten pages covering the Cape Colony represents a rather miniscule part. In the course of the voyage as a whole, Darwin made 1383 pages of notes on geology and 369 pages on zoology. He also bottled 1529 species in spirits and labelled 3907 skeleton, fossil, botanical and rock specimens.
17. For example, see Moorehead A. (1969). Darwin and the Beagle. Hamish Hamilton, London. Moorehead (p. 240) dismisses the Cape visit in just eight words: '... [T]hey put in only briefly at Cape Town'. The following two studies ignore it completely: Darwin Sir Charles (1960). 'Darwin as a traveler', Geographical Journal 126, 129-139, and Huxley J. and Kettlewell J.B.D. Charles Darwin and his World. Thames and Hudson, London.
18. For example, see Moorehead A. (1969). Darwin and the Beagle. Hamish Hamilton, London. Moorehead (p. 240) dismisses the Cape visit in just eight words: '... [T]hey put in only briefly at Cape Town'. The following two studies ignore it completely: Darwin Sir Charles (1960). 'Darwin as a traveler', Geographical Journal 126, 129-139, and Huxley J. and Kettlewell J.B.D. Charles Darwin and his World. Thames and Hudson, London.
19. For example, see Moorehead A. (1969). Darwin and the Beagle. Hamish Hamilton, London. Moorehead (p. 240) dismisses the Cape visit in just eight words: '... [T]hey put in only briefly at Cape Town'. The following two studies ignore it completely: Darwin Sir Charles (1960). 'Darwin as a traveler', Geographical Journal 126, 129-139, and Huxley J. and Kettlewell J.B.D. Charles Darwin and his World. Thames and Hudson, London.
20. Armstrong P. (1999). Charles Darwin's image of the world: the influence of Alexander von Humboldt on the Victorian naturalist. In Text and Image: Social Construction of Regional Knowledges, eds A. Buttimer, S.D. Brunn and U. Wardenga, pp. 46-53. Beiträge zur Regionale Geographie no. 49, Institut für Länderkunde, Leipzig.
21. Darwin F. (1960), op. cit, pp. 129-139.
22. Stoddart D.R. (1966). Darwin's impact on geography. Annals, Association of American Geographers 56, 683-696.
23. Kohn D. ed. (1985). The Darwinian Heritage. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
24. Hodge J. and Radick G. (Eds) (2003). The Cambridge Companion to Darwin. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
25. Unless otherwise stated, the particulars of and direct quotations on Darwin's stay at the Cape are taken from his diary: Keynes R.D. (1988), op. cit., pp. 422-427.
26. Burkhardt F. and Smith S. (Eds) (1988), op. cit., vol. 1, p. 497.
27. Fernie J.D. (1992). The last universalist. Am. Scient. 80, 422-424.
28. Pama C. (1973). Vintage Cape Town: Historical Houses and Families in and around the Old Cape Town, p. 143. Balkema, Cape Town.
29. Burchell W.J. (1967). Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa, vol. 1, p. 88. Facsimile edition, original 1821. Struik, Cape Town.
30. Burkhardt F. and Smith S. (Eds) (1985), op. cit., vol. 1, p. 500.
31. For biographical particulars, see Krüger D.W. and Beyers C.J. (Eds) (1977). South African Biographical Dictionary, vols 1 and 3. Tafelberg, Cape Town. The young Darwin must have been a good judge of people. All the scientists and officials with whom he had contact had distinguished careers ahead of them. Sir Andrew Smith (1797-1972) eventually became Director-General of the British Army Medical Services; Sir Thomas Maclear (1794-1879) developed the Cape Royal Observatory into the leading 19th century observatory of the southern hemisphere; Sir John Bell (1782-1876), together with Herschel and Fairbairn, established public education in the Cape Colony; Sir James Alexander, eventually a lieutenant-general in the British Army, acquired a fellowship of the Royal Geographical Society for his account of the country north of the Orange River (the present Namibia).
32. Evans D.S., Deeming T.S., Evans B.H. and Goldfarb S. (1969). Herschel at the Cape: Diaries and Correspondence of Sir John Herschel, 1834-1836, p. 168. Balkema, Cape Town.
33. Ibid., p. 324.
34. Keynes R.D. (Ed.) (1988), op. cit., p. 425.
35. Ibid., p. 426.
36. Darwin C.R. (1844). Geological Observations on Volcanic Islands visited during the Voyage of the Beagle, together with some Brief Notes on the Geology of Australia and the Cape of Good Hope. Ward Lock, London.
37. Darwin C.R. (1839). Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the Various Countries visited by HMS Beagle. Henry Colburne, London.
38. Darwin C.R. (1859). On the Origin of Species. John Murray, London.
39. On the Origin of Species was, of course, a condensed version of a longer manuscript on which Darwin was working between 1856 and 1858. Published in 1987 as Charles Darwin's Natural Selection (Stauffer R.L., Cambridge University Press, Cambridge), the manuscript contained nine references to the Cape Colony, including one substantial paragraph (p. 552) on possible fynbos migration.
40. Barlow N. (1958). The Autobiography of Charles Darwin. Collins, London.
41. Burkhardt F and Smith S. (Eds) (1985), op. cit., vol. 1, p. 498.
42. Ibid., p. 499.
43. Ibid., p. 497.
44. Browne J. (1995). Charles Darwin: Voyaging - A Biography, p. 129. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
45. Burkhardt F. and Smith S. (Eds) (1985), op. cit., vol. 1, p. 496.
46. Desmond A. and Moore J. (1992), op. cit., p. 205.
47. Keynes R.D. (Ed.) (1985), op. cit., p. 444.
48. Ibid., p. 425.
49. Latrobe C.I. (1969). Journal of a Visit to South Africa in 1815 and 1816 with Some Accounts of the Missionary Settlements of the United Brethren near the Cape of Good Hope, p. 38. Facsimile edition, 1818 original. Struik, Cape Town.
50. Keynes R.D. (Ed.) (1985), op. cit., p. 277.
51. Playfair J. (1815). Account of the structure of Table Mountain, and other parts of the peninsula of the Cape. Drawn up by Professor Playfair, from observations made by Captain Basil Hall, R.N. Proc. R. Soc. Edinb. 7, 277.
52. Clarke A. (1818). Narrative of a Journal to the Interior of China and to a Voyage to and from that Country in the Years 1816 and 1817, p. 300. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, London.
53. Evans et al. (Eds.) (1969), op. cit., pp. 210-213.
54. Armstrong P. (1999), op. cit., p. 50.
55. Hallam A. (1983). Great Geological Controversies. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
56. Darwin C.R. (1844), op. cit., p. 264. Because of its juxtaposed slate, hornfels, migmatite and granite, the Sea Point site eventually became important in its own right and its exposed structures were the focus of some excellent 20th century geological studies. Nevertheless, it was the name of Darwin which persuaded the Cape Town City Council to protect the site and lobby for its proclamation as a national monument in 1952.
57. Burkhardt F. and Smith S. (Eds) (1985), op. cit., vol. 1, pp. 494-501.
58. Sulloway F.J. (1985). Darwin's early intellectual development: an overview of the Beagle voyage. In The Darwinian Heritage, ed. D. Kohn, pp. 121-149. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
59. Barrat P.H., Gantry P.J., Herbert S., Kohn M.D., and Smith S. (Eds) (1987). Charles Darwin's Notebooks. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
60. Cannon W.H. (1961). The impact of uniformitarianism. Two letters from John Herschel to Charles Lyell, 1836. Proc. Am. Phil. Soc. 105, 301-314.
61. Ruse M. (1975). Darwin's debt to philosophy: an examination of the influence of the philosophical ideas of John F.W. Herschel and William Whewell on the development of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. Stud. Hist. Phil. Sci. 7, 159-181.
62. Ruse M. (1979). The Darwinian Revolution. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
63. Schweber S. (1989). John Herschel and Charles Darwin: a study in parallel lives. J. Hist. Biol. 22, 1-71.
64. Kellner L. (1963). Alexander von Humboldt. Oxford University Press, London.
65. Whewell W. (1837). History of the Inductive Sciences. Parker, London.
66. Herschel J.F.W. (1966), op. cit., p. 144.
67. Warner B. and Rourke J. (1996). Flora Herscheliana: Sir John and Lady Herschel at the Cape, 1834-1838. Brenthurst Press, Third Series, Johannesburg.
68. Cannon W.H. (1961), op. cit., p. 303.
69. Evans et al. (Eds) (1969), op. cit., p. 242.
70. Burkhardt F and Smith S. (Eds) (1985), op. cit., vol. 4, pp. 65, 319. Both Darwin and Herschel recorded the get-together of 15 June 1836 in their diaries but neither mentioned a discussion on matters of science. Fourteen years later, in a letter to Lyell on 8 March 1850, Darwin recalled: 'I heard Sir John Herschel at the Cape say how he wished someone could treat language as you had treated Geology and study the existing causes for change and apply deductions to the study of old languages'. With the road to Newlands skirting the bulb garden and dinner at 6 pm, 15 June was probably the day during which such a topic was broached. Darwin, however, saw Herschel also at one or two other occasions.
71. Barratt et al. (Eds) (1987), op. cit., p. 413.
72. Darwin C.R. (1859), op. cit., p. 1.
73. Barlow N. (1958), op. cit., p. 107.
74. Burkhardt F. and Smith S. (Eds) (1985), op. cit., vol. 1, p. 495.
75. Desmond A. and Moore J. (1992), op. cit., pp. 214-216.
76. Browne J. (1995), op. cit., pp. 328-331.
77. Evans et al. (Eds) (1969), op. cit., p. 72.
78. FitzRoy R. and Darwin C.R. (1836). A letter containing remarks on the moral state of Tahiti, New Zealand, etc. South African Christian Recorder 2(4), 311-343.