Beagle Voyage

  • Voyage Starts

    Darwin plans a trip to the Canary Islands, off the coast of Africa.
  • Plymouth, England

    Charles Darwin goes on the HMS Beagle voyage with the Captain Robert FitzRoy.
  • Cape Verde Islands

    Darwin is amazed by his first observations and he explores the volcanic island of St. Jago.
  • Over the Equator

    Darwin and Captain FitzRoy had crossed the equator while on the Beagle voyage.
  • Salvador, Brazil

    Darwin explores the Brazilian rainforest for the first time.
  • Punta Alta, Argentina

    Darwin finds giant fossils and is astonished by what he sees. He dug up fossils of extinct mammals, like the ground sloth or glyptodon.
  • Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

    Goals of the Beagle voyage was to establish a Christian mission and to spread Christianity. Darwin camps near a Fuegian Village and considers the tribal people of Tierra del Fuego "savages."
  • Falkland Islands

    He encounters 'primitive looking rocks' and finds them to be fossils. The Falklands were filled with brachiopods, which are 2 shelled animals living as the most abundant animals on Earth.
  • Rio Negro, Argentina

    Darwin explores Pampas, with the local people or 'gauchos.' He rides across the plains of Patagonia with a group of Argentine cowboys.
  • Chiloe Island, Chile

    Darwin sees Mount Osomo erupt while on the island of Chiloe and experiences the earthquake. Seeing the aftermath of the earthquake affected him tremendously and encouraged him to explore more
  • Chiloe Island, Chile

    The earthquake that Darwin experienced lifted the ocean floor 2.7 meters or 9 feet above sea level.
  • Galapagos Islands

    Darwin finds many species of plants, birds and tortoises unique on the Galapagos Islands but he realized they seem related to the mainland species.
  • Galapagos Islands

    Darwin found out that, back in London, the group of Galapagos fossils that he found were actually all finches.
  • Sydney, Australia

    Darwin arrived in Sydney Cove, he saw all the different variety of marsupials and began to wonder why there is a completely different set of mammals in Australia.
  • Bahia and Pernambuco, South America

    In South America, Darwin discovers many incredible creatures found in the jungle. Darwin is then dismayed when the Beagle makes an unscheduled detour
  • Cocos Islands

    Darwin studied coral reefs that were growing around islands to test his theory of atoll formation.
  • Mauritius

    Darwin took an observation and it stated, "I took a quiet walk along the sea coast to the north of the town; the plain is there quite uncultivated, consisting of a field of black lava, smoothed over with coarse grass and bushes, the greater part of which are mimosas,"
  • Cape Town, South Africa

    Darwin writes an other observation about his stop in Cape Town, South Africa during his voyage and states, "The first object in Cape Town which strikes the eye of a stranger, is the number of bullock wagons... I have as yet not mentioned the well known Table Mountain; this great mass of horizontally stratified sandstone rises quite close behind the town to a height of 3,500 feet."
  • Falmouth, England (End of voyage)

    Darwin and Captain FitzRoy reached the end of their voyage on the Beagle and have returned home to England to share their discoveries and theories.