改變世界的島嶼

By Andrew Murray

1859年，查爾斯·達(dá)爾文的《物種起源》（The Origin of Species）面世了。在某種程度上這本書永遠(yuǎn)地改變了世界，而關(guān)于他所有思想的起源、這本《物種起源》的起源，達(dá)爾文堅信是因為24年前他踏上的一片荒島……

When His Majestys Ship Beagle reached the Galápagos on the 15th of September 1835， it was a last minute stop before a long journey home. She had been charting the coast of South America for more than three years. She now had just five weeks to make a modern and accurate map of this little known 1）outpost. But this was much more than just another landfall. It was to change the course of history. On board， was naturalist Charles Darwin.

On the island of Floreana he was met on the beach at Post Office Bay by the governor of the first ever settlement in the Galápagos， an Englishman called Lawson. Lawsons tales of the strange Galápagos life encouraged Darwin to go deep into the interior of the islands. And wherever he went， he collected.

No sooner had Darwin left the Galápagos than he began to see the truth. As he spent the long hours at sea sorting through his collections one specimen suddenly caught his attention， not tortoise， not finch， but mockingbird.

Charles Darwin（Via Actor）： I have specimens from four different islands. On two islands they appear the same， but on the other two they are different. In each island， each kind is exclusively found.

Different islands within sight of each other had different mockingbirds with slightly different feathers and， like the finches， slightly different beaks. Darwin now remembered something Governor Lawson had told him about tortoises. He claimed he could tell which island a tortoise came from just by the shape of its shell. Different island， different tortoise， same thing.

He had seen from the dramatic Galápagos landscape that the islands were constantly changing. Could living things be changing too？

1835年9月15日，貝格爾號（譯者注：也譯作小獵犬號）抵達(dá)加拉帕戈斯群島，這是她返程前最后一次短暫的停留。為了繪制南美洲地區(qū)的海岸線地圖，她已經(jīng)在海上航行了三年多。現(xiàn)在她還有五星期的時間來給這些不為人知的島嶼繪制一張精確的、最新的地圖。但這并非又一次普普通通的著陸，歷史的進(jìn)程將因此而改變。同在船上的還有博物學(xué)家查爾斯·達(dá)爾文。

英國人羅森在弗羅倫納島郵局海灣的沙灘上迎接達(dá)爾文。羅森是加拉帕戈斯有史以來第一批移民的總督。他講述的關(guān)于加拉帕戈斯生物的奇特現(xiàn)象激發(fā)了達(dá)爾文深入島嶼考察的興趣，而他每到一處都會采集標(biāo)本。

達(dá)爾文離開加拉帕戈斯不久后便有了重要發(fā)現(xiàn)。當(dāng)他在漫長的海上歸程中對采集的標(biāo)本進(jìn)行分門別類時，一種標(biāo)本突然引起了他的注意：不是巨龜，也不是雀鳥，而是嘲鳥。

查爾斯·達(dá)爾文（通過角色扮演）：我在四座不同的島上都采集了標(biāo)本。有兩座島上的看起來一樣，但另兩座島上的卻不一樣。并且在各個島上，雀鳥的種類都是惟一的。

這幾座島嶼距離很近，可以彼此望見。但不同島嶼上的嘲鳥羽毛卻略有差異，并且像雀鳥一樣，它們的喙也都各有特點。達(dá)爾文現(xiàn)在想起了羅森總督曾說起過的一件事?？偠秸f自己僅憑龜殼的形狀就能分辨出一只龜來自哪一座島。不同的島嶼有不同的龜種，嘲鳥也是一樣的道理。

他從加拉帕戈斯奇特的地貌中看到了這些島嶼都在不斷地變化。那么有沒有可能，生物也在不斷變化？