The Voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin

1. The Beagle sailed round Chatham Island, and anchored in several bays. 2. One night I slept on shore on a part of the island, where black truncated cones were extraordinarily numerous: from one small eminence I counted sixty of them, all surmounted by craters more or less perfect. The greater number consisted merely of a ring of red scoriae or slags, cemented together: and their height above the plain of lava was not more than from fifty to a hundred feet; none had been very lately active. 3. The entire surface of this part of the island seems to have been permeated, like a sieve, 4. by the subterranean vapours: here and there the lava, whilst soft, has been blown into great bubbles; and in other parts, the tops of caverns similarly formed have fallen in, leaving circular pits with steep sides. 5. From the regular form of the many craters, they gave to the country an artificial appearance, which vividly reminded me of those parts of Staffordshire, where the great iron-foundries are most numerous. 6. The day was glowing hot, and the scrambling over the rough surface and through the intricate thickets, was very fatiguing; but I was well repaid by the strange Cyclopean scene. As I was walking along I met two large tortoises, each of which must have weighed at least two hundred pounds: one was eating a piece of cactus, and as I approached, it stared at me and slowly walked away; the other gave a deep hiss, and drew in its head. These huge reptiles, surrounded by the black lava, the leafless shrubs, and large cacti, seemed to my fancy like some antediluvian animals. The few dull- coloured birds cared no more for me than they did for the great tortoises.

Developing Schema (Background Knowledge)

Research: 1. What is the Beagle and who sailed it, what is the year? Find a picture of the Beagle and copy and paste. What does H.M.S. stand for? Who was Queen during the period in England that Darwin sailed?


Making an Inference: 2. An inference is something the reader infers or guesses at without the author having directly stated it. In line 1: What type of transportation must Darwin have been using since he had, "...anchored in several bays."

3. Using http://wordwizard.scholastic.com/ look up the adjective truncated and define the word. What was truncated? Look up the word surmounted and define. Find a synoymn for mere or merely.

Reading with Context Clues in Mind: 4. Place yourself in the sentence 2 and think of a place where you would be able to count sixty cones. Would you be at a place of low elevation or high elevation? Look up the word using your S.W.W. and see if you were right. What does eminence mean? Make sure you select the definition that applies to the text.

5. Writers often write using synonyms; look for the signal word or as in scoriae or slag: both have a similar meaning. What do they mean?

6. "...none had been very lately active." What does this mean? Is the volcano active or dormant?

7. What does permeated like a sieve mean? Look up the word permeated. Find a picture of a sieve. Do you think this was a useful simile to describe the landscape. Write one of your own.

Making self-to text-connection while we Read:

8. Have you ever arrived somewhere and thought it reminded you of someplace else. When we see something vividly, we we see it clearly. Do you vividly remember a favorite holiday? Which one was it? Write one paragraph containing five sentence. Use your transitional words.

9. The iron foundaries in Straffordshire held huge brick kilns or ovens. The foundaries smelt iron in an oven and created cast iron fireplaces, knick-knacks, horseshoes and such. Do you have any cast iron items in your home? What? Write in a complete sentence. If you have more than one use your series comma.

10. Place yourself in the sentence. The day is glowing hot...you are climbing over rough surfaces and though intricate thickets what what you be: full of energy or tired? Which one do you think is a synonym for fatiguing? What item on land might have intricate thickets?

11. Allusions are a reference to a famous person, event, or literary selection. Find a cyclopean scene from the Odyssey and copy and paste the land where the Cyclops resided. Why was this a reward to Darwin?

II. Structural Analysis:
1. In the first sentence one understands that Darwin is writing in past tense. What suffix is indicative of this. Write the words which contain this suffix.

2. a. Identify the prefix in line 4 and the root of the same word.(Hint: the root means earth.) figure out what the words mean by your understanding of the root and the prefix. http://www.betterendings.org/homeschool/Words/Root%20Words.htm
b. look up the prefixes: sur, ante, and in and write the meaning down.


Looking at parts of Speech:
4. In the second sentence there is an irregular verb which means that there is a stem change in the word. (hint: it follows a pronoun)

Understanding the significance of punctuation:

5. In line 2 Darwin uses a punctuation mark to indicate that he will further explain the truncated cones. What is the name of that punctuation mark? Pretend you are an explorer at your, Wonder of the World, that you selected for your essay and use this sentence as a mentor text and write your own using the colon.

Example: I slept on the shore and looked down on on a part of the island, where
glacial erratics were abundant: from the scarp, I counted thirty-three of them, all
had black and gold metamorphic lines, like waves in an ocean.