Geological Observations on South America. Being the Third Part of the Geology of the Voyage of the Beagle, Under the Command of Capt. Fitzroy, R. N. During the years 1832 to 1836
Author: Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882)
Year: 1846
Publisher: Stewart & Murray for Smith, Elder & Company
Place: London
Description:
vi+279 pages with frontispiece folding map, 5 folding plates (one folding hand-colored lithographic geological cross-section by G.B. Sowerby Junior), figures and index. Lacks the 32 pages of advertisements which is often the case. Octavo (9" x 5 1/2") bound in half leather over marbled boards with five raised spine bands and black label in gilt lettering. (Freeman 273; Norman 857; Sabin 18646) First edition.
Published in 1846, Geological Observations on South America is the third and final part of Charles Darwin's geological trilogy detailing the findings from his famous five-year voyage aboard the HMS Beagle under the command of Captain Robert FitzRoy. The trilogy consists of Part 1: The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs (1842); Part 2: Geological Observations on the Volcanic Islands (1844); and Part 3: Geological Observations on South America (1846) — dedicated entirely to the continental mainland where Darwin spent the majority of his land-based exploration. It was not until 1851 that an edition of all three geological works was first published.
The third and last of Darwin's geological reports on the Beagle voyage. In it, he described the pampas, the plateaux, and the Andes, showing how they had been gradually pushed up in the way Lyell had surmised without the intervention of catastrophic events. The descriptions of secondary fossil shells from South America, illustrated in Sowerby's plates, are by Edward Forbes.
Darwin argued that vast landforms—including the pampas, plateaus, and the Andes mountain chain—were formed by slow, continuous upward pressure over immense periods, strongly supporting Charles Lyell's uniformitarian geology rather than sudden catastrophic events. Seismic and Volcanic History: Detailed logs and analysis of South American earthquakes, volcanic rock mineralogy, lava, granite, and deformed metamorphic strata. Fossil Contributions: Features specialized descriptions of tertiary and secondary fossil shells contributed by paleontologists G. B. Sowerby and Edward Forbes. Included original engraved folding map and hand-colored geological cross-sections illustrating the terrain and strata of the continent.
Condition;
Rebound without publisher's 32p pages of advertisement. Folding map repaired but with some tears. hand-colored plate with tears at folds, some bumping and rubbing at the corners, boards lightly scuffed, some light toning, plate IV with some edge wear else very good of a scarce title.
