On a bleak winter afternoon in 1831, a young man named Charles Robert Darwin sailed from Plymouth, England, on the H.M.S. Beagle, in His Majesty's service.  Darwin was to collect and study animal and plant life all over the world.  He was unaware that he was beginning one of the greatest voyages of all time.

Darwin had with him on shipboard a book by the geologist Charles Lyell.  Lyell theorized that the world had been formed by natural causes over millions and millions of years.  Since everyone at that time believed that the world and all living things had been created in six days, as described in the Old Testament, the theory was considered heresy.  Darwin, however, thought that it was possible.  During the next five years, he observed that the earth was constantly changing.  When he found sea shells at 13,000 feet above sea level, he was convinced that Lyell's "wild" theory was the truth.

In 1859 Darwin published The Origin of Species, the controversial book which introduced his own theory of evolution--that all living things have evolved from simpler forms of life, not from a special act of creation.  In the ensuing outcry, he was condemned as a heretic who denied the truth of the Bible.  The great battle between religion and science had begun. 

Twelve years later, Charles Darwin wrote The Descent of Man, applying his theories to human beings.  By this time, much of the scientific world had accepted his findings.  When Darwin died in 1882 he was honored the world over as the man who had changed the whole history of science. 

In this fascinating book, the author explains Darwin's theories clearly for young people.  Vivid descriptions of the adventures and discoveries during the voyage of the Beagle enable readers to participate in the exciting events which so drastically altered man's knowledge of himself and the world.

From the dust jacket