One of the great masterpieces of purposeful travel. Unlike Origin of Species, this work is confined largely to direct, brilliantly insightful personal observation, rendered in cogent, precise prose, and does not constitute a sustained argument. What theories are expounded are offered in passing to rationalize curiosities witnessed. The singular exception occurs late in the narrative, where Darwin offers a convincing, but rather tiresome unified theory of coral reefs, including the complete life cycle of atolls. This stretch is very like his style in Origin of Species, though it fortunately offers far fewer exhaustively repetitious evidences. A younger, less cautious, and more entertaining Darwin.