During the visit of HMS Beagle to Cape Town in 1836, several of its crew and its guest naturalist Charles Darwin visited the Royal Observatory, Cape of Good Hope, then the prime scientific institution of the colony. Their comings and goings were noted in her diary by Mrs Mary Maclear, the wife of the HM Astronomer Thomas Maclear. At least one serious purpose lay behind these visits, namely the measurement of the earth's magnetic field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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