Darwin's most important books in his luggage were: - the Personal Narrative of Alexander von Humboldt, a description of the exploration of South America, which Henslow had given him - the first part of  Lyells Principles of Geology. Darwin had devoured the book by Von Humboldt earlier and it had strongly stimulated his keenness to travel. Also he had often used it during the voyage. Know more? Alexander von Humboldt

As for the geology it was generally believed that the layers of the earth had been formed during disasters like huge floods, vulcanic eruptions on world scale, etc. Charles Lyell, on the contrary, proposed that all changes in the earth's crust had happened in a slow speed; that the land had moved upwards or downwards gradually. In short the events in the past went in the same way as those in the present. This view is called actualism or uniformitarianism, whereas the other one is called catastrophism. Darwin took over the modern view after reading Lyell's book during the voyage and he indeed did find several indications for the truth of the theory. He saw for example on the Cape Verde Islands layers with rather modern shells situated at a height of 40 m. Know more? Uniformitarianisme Charles Lyell

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