Reading Charles Darwin's first book, Voyages of the Beagle

I downloaded from Project Gutenburg Charles Darwin's first published book, The Voyages of the Beagle. What a fantastic read. It's a daily journal he kept of his travels around the world studying natural history. He reports on the geography of the lands, the people and natives he meets, and much about animals and plants encountered, as well as the climate. He was about 28 years old.

I only knew his name associated with the Theory of Evolution. Well this journal was made many years before that. This man was an adventurer, not by choice but simply by the fact he was exposed to conditions that were adventurous. The two couldn't be seperated. The year is 1838. The lands he explore are all done on horseback. He travels with other companions and in the company of Guachos (cowboys).
In Argentina his explorations were always under threat of attack by various Indian tribes that were revolting against the settlement of their land by foreigners. He recounts many Indian raids on Argentine ranches where everyone was killed. He talks of crossing a 400 mile desert in Argentina on horseback. How the Gauchos would catch wild game and their skills as horsemen.

The following passage is from his time exploring the Falkland Islands:

“From the quantity of rain which had fallen, the surface of the whole country was swampy. I suppose my horse fell at least a dozen times, and sometimes the whole six horses were floundering in the mud together. All the little streams are bordered by soft peat, which makes it very difficult for the horses to leap them without falling. To complete our discomforts we were obliged to cross the head of a creek of the sea, in which the water was as high as our horses' backs; and the little waves, owing to the violence of the wind, broke over us, and made us very wet and cold. ”

Excerpt From: Charles Darwin. “The Voyage of the Beagle.” iBooks. 

I came to this book after reading President Teddy Roosevelt's book Through the Brazilian Wilderness. That book is also a journal that Roosevelt during an expedition into the Amazon Basin Brazilian jungle with his son Kermit. Somewhere Roosevelt mentions that Darwin's book Voyage of the Beagle was among his favorite books. So, on Roosevelt's suggestion I found the book. I am not finished with it, but t's so good I had to report on it.

I have allergic reaction to a bee or wasp sting

I am an outdoors kind of guy. Every couple of years I can count on getting stung by some sort of wasp, bee, or yellow jacket. When I get stung I experience a burning sensation that only lasts for 10-15 minutes. That's it. After that it's as if I were never stung. Well not so this year. A month ago I was dressed in  shorts and boots without socks  while mowing the yard. I passed the mower over a nest of ground bees or hornets. Well, they got riled up and I think I got 3 stings, 2 for sure, just above the boot line on my lower leg. The stinging & burning was more pronounced than I usually experience.  The burning sensation didn't got away for many hours and when it did t was replaced with intense itching and a lot of redness. About week later all was fine.

This is a photo I snapped a few years ago of a hornet that stung me while I was driving down the road. He must have come in a window & got lodged between the drivers seat & my back.

Another week pass by and this time I  pulling weeds in the garden and lo & behold, there was another nest of in ground bees. Sure enough I got stung on the calf of my right leg. Well, just as before this was burning and itching and seemed more intense than the earlier stings.
Maybe less than 2 weeks go by and I am sitting peacefully in a chair when out of nowhere I feel a sting in my right shoulder, close to the arm pit. Well, my reaction to that sting was far more severe. My arm became inflamed from the shoulder to the wrist, red and hot. The next day it began to itch intensely and blisters formed on the skin. So I went urgent care. They prescribed some prednisone and after 3 days the itch was almost all gone. It turns out that the effects of bee stings is cumulative, each successive sting build upon the previous stings thereby manifesting in more intense reaction. I am now guarding against any more bee encounters for this season. I would hate to see how I react to one more!