It’s probably a safe bet that not many people outside the USA have heard of John Wesley Powell, but he and a motley assortment of backwoodsmen and adventurers made one of the great exploration journeys that helped open up the American West.

In 1869 Powell led a ten-man expedition in four boats which eventually achieved the first navigation of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Powell himself was a one-armed Civil War veteran interested in science, especially geology, which he taught at a minor college. Described as a natural leader he was a complex character, physically and mentally strong and determined, vain, and not above stealing the credit from others. Some of the others he knew already, some he recruited for their back-country skills (which some of them in turn may have exaggerated). The boats they used were clumsy, heavy, broad-beamed but strong, unmanoeuverable and completely unsuitable for the conditions they would meet. No-one on the expedition had ever taken a boat through white water rapids before.

Despite all this the expedition was finally successful, although not all the original ten made it to the end. Nor did all the boats. By the time the survivors finally emerged from the chaos of the Canyon they were near starvation. Their remaining supplies would have perhaps lasted just another two days.

Dolnick has researched his tale thoroughly, drawing on contempoary and later sources including the first-hand accounts of Powell and some of the others. Although the account of the journey itself is basically one rapid after another the story never palls and the individual characters begin to emerge. Into the day-by-day account Dolnick interweaves commentary and analysis from modern white-water riders (mostly astonished that anyone survived), discussion of white-water techniques, the technology of the boats (hardly any), and the historical background. He also covers Powell’s own history in some detail, including an account of how Powell lost his arm at the battle of Shiloh. His account of the battle itself is vivid and horrific, bringing out the futility, chaos and carnage of one of the first major battles of the Civil War. Dolnick quotes one historian: it was

just a disorganized, murderous fistfight, a hundred thousand men slamming away at each other. … The generals didn’t know their jobs, the soldiers didn’t know their jobs. It was just pure determination to stand and fight and not retreat. … It was the first great modern battle. [Shelby Foote]

You’ll have to make up your own mind whether to admire the men’s courage, despair at their foolhardiness, or both. Read the story, and along the way you’ll learn a little about white water and the jargon of the rapids: holes and eddy fences, boils and pillows, whirlpools, haystacks and rooster tails. You can imagine manhandling heavy boats through violent waters on a meagre diet of rancid bacon and damp flour, and share the explorers’ genuine fear that the next rapid waiting round the bend might be an unavoidable two-hundred-foot vertcal drop to their deaths.

In the early 1830’s Charles Darwin was a young man, scientifically inclined, with a general interest in the natural world and particular interests in botany, zoology and geology. He had gained a BA from Cambridge, and would have progressed naturally into the Church where like many others he could combine the duties of a parish with pursuing his scientific interests.

All this changed when he was persuaded – initially against his father’s wishes – to take on the role of "gentleman companion" to Captain Robert Fitzroy of HMS Beagle, who had orders from the Admiralty to conduct surveys around the coast of South America. Darwin accepted, and thus at the end of 1831 set off on what was to be a 5-year circumnavigation of the globe. This book is his account of those travels.

This was a time when science was making great advances and challenging traditional views of the world. The foundations of modern geology had been laid by Charles Lyell, who had just published (in 1830) the first volume of his "Principles of Geology" in which he set out to explain the physical geography and geology we see today, including the fossil record, by movements in the earth’s surface, changes in sea levels, etc. over periods of time orders of magnitude greater than the few thousand years generally accepted by the Christian church. Robert Fitzroy was interested in Lyell’s work, and passed his copy of Vol 1 on to Darwin. The later volumes were sent out to rendezvous with the Beagle during the voyage.

So here we have the young Darwin, bright, inquisitive, meticulous in his observations and an avid collector of specimens, visiting parts of the world still relatively unfamiliar to Europeans. His enthusiasm is obvious, but he had not yet started to formulate the theories for which he was to become famous. In that sense this book is not a prequel to "Origin of Species". He did, though, observe and record many geological features which corroborated Lyell’s theories.

From an early 21st century perspective it is hard not to regret some of the ways in which it was quite normal for even an educated man like Darwin to behave. This was the time when many of the great collections of specimens were assembled – Darwin’s own were shipped back to England in great quantity – and the killing of animals in order to preserve the carcasses for study was the norm. There is an episode where Darwin, exploring the island of San Pedro off the west coast of South America, spots a fox sitting on a rock. Recognising it as one of a particularly rare species, he describes with a note of glee how he was able to take advantage of the fox’s tameness to creep up on it from behind and deliver a fatal blow to the head with his geological hammer. He concludes "This fox … is now mounted in the museum of the Zoological Society". (p221)

And then the Galapagos, which for us is a UNESCO World Heritage site of almost hallowed status, the birthplace of the theory of evolution. True, Darwin records the plants and animals, making the observations about their habitats and adaptations which he will later draw on for Origin. But he also reports without a hint of criticism how first visiting whalers and "Bucaniers", and then the recent settlers massacre the giant tortoises for food.

In the woods [of Charles Island] there are many wild pigs and goats, but the main article of animal food is derived from the tortoise. Their numbers in this island have of course been greatly reduced, but the people yet reckon on two days’ hunting supplying food for the rest of the week. It is said that formerly single vessels have taken away as many as 700 of these animals, and that the ship’s company of a frigate some years since brought down 200 to the beach in one day. (p271)

Later he tells how easy it is to kill the birds, who have not learned to fear humans.

There is not one which will not approach sufficiently near to be killed with a switch, and sometimes, as I have myself tried, with a cap or a hat. A gun here is almost superfluous; for with the muzzle of one I pushed a hawk off the branch of a tree. (p288)

Shed a tear for the dodo. In these enlightened times we can only look back with regret, recognising that the world was different then. Our descendants (if any) will look back on our time with the same feelings as they replay images of glaciers and icecaps, and the multitude of species that have disappeared as the climate changes. The difference is, we do know better.

This Penguin edition comes with an informative introduction by Janet Browne and Michael Neve. It also includes the Admiralty Orders for the Beagle’s voyage – an interesting insight into the role voyages like this played both in exploration and development of trade – and Captain Fitzroy’s essay "Remarks with reference to the Deluge". This is an attempt by an educated man of the time to reconcile the latest geological theories (Lyell again) with the biblical account of the Flood, and it illustrates the problems that scientific advances were posing for conventional beliefs.

* More correctly, "Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the Various Countries Visited by H.M.S. Beagle, under the Command of Captain Fitzroy, R.N. from 1932 to 1936."