From Charles Darwin's Portfolio: An Early Essay on South American Geology and Species

This work is an analysis and edition of a previously unpublished essay by Charles Darwin entitled "Reflection on reading my Geological notes." The original draft of the essay appears to have been written in 1834, that is, during Darwin's voyage on H.M.S. Beagle (1831-1836). In the essay Darwin developed a theory of the geological formation of South America that included a narrative framework for the history of life on the continent. His treatment of the history of life is not yet transmutationist, but it is highly sequential.