could scarcely be done justice to, in the 240 pages devoted to their
exposition. That he executed the work of preparing the book on South
America in somewhat the manner of a task, is shown by many references in
his letters. Writing to Sir Joseph Hooker in 1845, he says, "I hope this
next summer to finish my South American Geology, then to get out a little
Zoology, and HURRAH FOR MY SPECIES WORK!"

It would seem that the feeling of disappointment, which Darwin so often
experienced in comparing a book when completed, with the observations and
speculations which had inspired it, was more keenly felt in the case of his
volume on South America than any other. To one friend he writes, "I have of
late been slaving extra hard, to the great discomfiture of wretched
digestive organs, at South America, and thank all the fates, I have done
three-fourths of it. Writing plain English grows with me more and more
difficult, and never attainable. As for your pretending that you will read
anything so dull as my pure geological descriptions, lay not such a
flattering unction on my soul, for it is incredible." To another friend he
writes, "You do not know what you threaten when you propose to read it--it
is purely geological. I said to my brother, 'You will of course read it,'
and his answer was, 'Upon my life, I would sooner even buy it.'"

In spite of these disparaging remarks, however, we are strongly inclined to
believe that this book, despised by its author, and neglected by his
contemporaries, will in the end be admitted to be one of Darwin's chief
titles to fame. It is, perhaps, an unfortunate circumstance that the great
success which he attained in biology by the publication of the "Origin of
Species" has, to some extent, overshadowed the fact that Darwin's claims as
a geologist, are of the very highest order. It is not too much to say that,
had Darwin not been a geologist, the "Origin of Species" could never have
been written by him. But apart from those geological questions, which have