Bonus Episode: Drawn a Bill

To celebrate the 186th Anniversary of Charles Darwin setting sail on the HMS Beagle we post a Bonus podcast discussion with Dr. Geoffrey Williams, an economics professor, on the expenses and wealth of Charles Darwin.  Hope you enjoy the conversation!

image from Darwin Online

Season 2 Episode 7: Potatoless Breakfast

"I climbed up on foot to very near the crest; from the Puna I experienced, I cannot suppose the elevation is less than 8000 to 10000 ft; There was a good deal of snow, which however only remains here in the winter months. The winds in these districts obey very regular laws; every day a fresh breeze blows up the valley & at night, an hour or two after sunset, the air from the cold regions above descends as through a funnel. — This night it blew a gale of wind, & the temperature must have been considerably below the freezing point, for water in a short time became a block of ice. No clothes seemed to oppose any obstacle to the air; I suffered much from the cold, so that I could not sleep, & in the morning rose with my body quite dull & benumbed."  [Voyage of the Beagle, Chapter XVI]

In this episode we discuss the various expeditions Charles Darwin organized to explore the Andes mountain range in South America. These adventures are recounted in chapters IX, XII, XV, and XVI in The Voyage of the Beagle.

Image from Darwin Online

We started our discussion with the Santa Cruz expedition that Darwin and Fitzroy engaged with while the HMS Beagle was grounded for repairs at the mouth of the Santa Cruz river. This 17 day journey occurred from April 18-May 8, 1834 and involved the men dragging three whale-boats upriver hoping to find the source of the river at the base of the Andes mountains. In our discussion James erroneously said the trip was 185 miles but further reading in Fitzroy's account we find the following-

"Late on the 4th we returned to our tents, thoroughly tired by a daily succession of hard work, and long walks. At this bivouac we were about one hundred and forty miles, in a straight line, from the estuary of Santa Cruz, or from Weddell Bluff; and about two hundred and forty-five miles distant by the course of the river." [Fitzroy, Narrative pg 356].

The men dragged the boats upriver for 14 days until Fitzroy decided it was time to turn back and then it only took them 3 days to return to the HMS Beagle. Sarah discussed the complex geology of the region and the ships artist had come along to make amazing drawings of the scenery. 

C. Martens. T. Landseer.
BASALT GLEN – RIVER SANTA CRUZ.

We scanned the wonderful map that Nora Barlow includes in her edited edition of the Diary of the Voyage of the H.M.S. Beagle and have highlighted the 4 different trips we discussed in this podcast.

The Santa Cruz journey is indicated by the red line, Andes 1 trip is the pink loop, the Andes 2 expedition is indicated by the green loop over the Andes and the Andes 3 trip is indicated by the purple line.

We discussed on our reliance of the wonderful website called About Darwin which maps in detail the various journey Darwin has during the 5 year voyage. Highly recommend the site, great information.

Josh discussed the earthquake Darwin experienced and the state of destruction he observed in Concepcion.

This reminded James about plate tectonics and how the west coast of South America resides on the suture line between two major tectonic plates - the Nazca and South American Plates.

map from https://www.thoughtco.com/map-of-tectonic-plates-and-their-boundaries-1441098

As Sarah remarked, Darwin did some amazing geologizing while engaged in those 1,000 mile + expeditions through the Andes and valleys of South America.  He created a beautiful cross sectional map that can be found here- Darwin's map. 

The opening and closing theme to Discovering Darwin is "May" by Jared C. Balogh.

Interlude music is Little glass men - Moon Shadow

Season 2 Episode 6: Boat Memory

"Whilst going on shore, we pulled alongside a canoe with 6 Fuegians. I never saw more miserable creatures; stunted in their growth, their hideous faces bedaubed with white paint & quite naked.— One full aged woman absolutely so, the rain & spray were dripping from her body; their red skins filthy & greasy, their hair entangled, their voices discordant, their gesticulation violent & without any dignity. Viewing such men, one can hardly make oneself believe that they are fellow creatures placed in the same world. [Beagle Diary, February 25, 1834]

In this episode we are joined by our esteemed colleague Dr. Jeremy Paden to discuss Darwin, Fitzroy, and other early explorers views of the native peoples of Tierra del Fuego.  As we outlined in episode 1 of this season, Fitzroy had kidnapped four native Tierra del Fuegians with the hopes of converting them to Christianity and ultimately returning them back to their native lands to nucleate the conversion of the "savages" to a live a civilized agrarian life of tubers, legumes, and bible verses.

Unfortunately, Boat Memory, one of the natives that Fitzroy had gang pressed into missionary service died from small pox in England but the other three - "Fuegia Basket", "Jemmy Button", and "York Minister" survived their journey to England,  their education therein, and their ultimate return to tip of South America to rejoin their family and friends.

Sketches by Fitzroy of his kidnapped victims. Image from Darwin Online.

On January 23rd, 1833 the HMS Beagle stopped by Wollya bay (later spelled Woolliah and then Wulaia] to build a outpost for Jemmy, Fuegia and York. Fitzroy and his crew, along with the help of Mr. Matthews, a missionary Englishman, planted crops, built a cabin, and transferred the useless accouterments of "civilization".

In Keith Thomson’s book HMS Beagle: The story of Darwin’s Ship he vividly describes the scene and foreshadows the failure of the settlement:

“Over the next week the party from the Beagle built a small outpost and finally unloaded all the incredible paraphernalia that had been sent from England by well-wishers, all the Victorian knickknackery that seemed so splendid in London but appeared ridiculously out of place at this remotest end of the world. A seemingly unending pile of soup tureens, chamber pots, wineglasses, and beaver hats was transferred from the boats, while more practical souls set about planting potatoes, beans, root vegetables, lettuce, and cabbage in the gardens”. [pg. 172]

[Correction] During our retelling the story of the return of the three Fuegians we mixed up the time scale of events. We stated that Mr. Matthwes survived a year at the outpost before he was picked up by Fitzroy but in actuality he only lasted about 2 weeks before he abandoned the missionary effort and left the HMS Beagle to join his brother in New Zealand. 

At then end of the podcast we enjoyed a lively discussion on how negatively did Darwin view the natives of Tierra del Fuego?

The opening and closing theme to Discovering Darwin is "May" by Jared C. Balogh. 
Interlude song - Missionary Man by the Eurythmics

Season 2 Episode 5- Big Llama

In this episode we discuss the interesting extinct and extant mammals that Darwin collected in South America during his voyage on the Beagle. James makes an argument that it was the mammals that Darwin collected that stimulated his idea that species evolve. Sarah talks about why there are so many large mammals in Africa and not in South America, which Darwin thought was odd since vegetation growth is much more dense and thick in the rain forest of South America compared to the plains of Africa.


Some of Darwin's unique species he collected on his voyage.

From Darwin's journal where he realizes species transmutate

"In July opened first note book on 'transmutation of Species'—Had been greatly struck from about month of previous March on character of S. American fossils—& species on Galapagos Archipelago. These facts origin (especially latter) of all my views."  

From Darwin's Journal July 1837.

Darwin was struck by two interesting aspects of the mammals of South America. The first was that there was a strong correspondence between the mammals that he shot, collected and ate in South America with the fossils he collected in the same area. Three major kinds of mammals intrigued Darwin during his exploration of South America. The first is the sloths,  a slow moving herbivore mammal that are adapted to feeding on leaves and fresh buds of the cecropia tree. The first mammal Darwin collected was giant bones from the megatherium, an extinct species of giant ground sloth.

https://media.mnn.com/assets/images/2017/01/Sloth-Hanging-Tree-Branch

http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/m/megatherium.html

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AMegatherium_americanum.jpg

The other mammal type that intrigued Darwin was the fossil giant Glyptodont which looks similar to the extant armadillo still found in from South America up through Central America into the southern regions of North America.

http://media.npr.org/

http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/index.html

The other two interesting mammals Darwin collected as fossils was the Toxodon and the Macrauchenia. Here are some reconstructions of the animals by talented and imaginative artists.

http://prehistoricpark.wikia.com/wiki/Toxodon

Follow this link to a wonderful National Geographic article that discusses some of these amazing prehistoric mammals.

http://darwin-online.org.uk/graphics/Zoology_Illustrations.html

During the discussion Sarah mentioned the diversity of form prehistoric mammals exhibited in the fossil record. The image below collects some of the various forms of elephants that have evolved over the past 65 million years. Note how diverse the tusks, modified teeth, have developed in the various species. 

https://www.natgeocreative.com/comp/05/682/457127.jpg

Josh mentioned how impressive it is to watch vampire bats feed. Here is a link to cool video from National Geographic that shows interesting bat behavior but the narrator tries too hard to be cute.

The opening and closing theme to Discovering Darwin is "May" by Jared C. Balogh. 

Interlude music is Suede Head by Red Star Martyrs

S2 E4 - My Gacho Bromance

In this episode of we are joined by the historian Dr. Gregg Bocketti (Transylvania University) in a discussion on the cultural and political conditions of South America when Charles Darwin set shore in Brazil and surrounding territories in the 1830's.

In 1831, a year before Darwin was to arrive in Rio de Janerio, the emperor Don Pedro I decided to return to Portugal  to help his daughter reclaim the throne of Portugal and left behind his 5 year old son Don Pedro II to be regent of the Kingdom of Brazil.  Because of his weak regency and lacking of ruling control, local strongmen rose in power and resolved their disputes through local civil wars.

Pedro II at around 11 years of age. Wikipedia

Gregg vividly described the diverse social and cultural life Darwin would have encountered in in Rio de Janerio. At the time that Darwin visited Brazil it was still a country based upon a slave economy, which is clearly evident in the painting below that was created around the time Darwin was visiting the city.

John Steinmann, a Swiss artist, lived in Rio de Janeiro between 1825 and 1833.

Gregg spoke about the horrific conditions that the slaves had to endure and the various roles slaves played in the Brazilian economy. One of the interesting aspects of slavery in Brazil was that some slaves took on trades and technical trade positions and were able to work on the side to make extra money for themselves which could be used to purchase their freedom.

Painting by French painter Jean-Baptiste Debret

Follow this link to a story on NPR that gives a vivid account of slavery in Brazil and how they were one of the last countries in the Americas to abolish slavery.

http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2013/11/12/244563532/photos-reveal-harsh-detail-of-brazils-history-with-slavery

Darwin spent a time exploring the countryside of Brazil, Argentina and Chile and on some of those expeditions he would be guided by the local cowboys known as gauchos. Darwin was impressed with the gauchos riding ability and skill in capturing animals with the bolas, a set of heavy balls affixed to the end of ropes and twirled and thrown to entangle the legs of rheas, guanacos or any other small prey they were hunting.

Season 2 Episode 3 - Court of Neptune

In this episode Sarah, Josh and James discuss the opening chapters of Voyage of the Beagle where Darwin recounts the initial months of his voyage that includes an aborted stop at the Canary Islands, a visit to Cape Verde and then his first overland trip in Brazil. James discussed how Darwin spent as much time off the Beagle traveling overland than he did sailing in the Beagle.

By Jules de Caudin - Relation complète du naufrage de la frégate La Méduse faisant partie de l'expédition du Sénégal en 1816, by A. Correard, H. Savigny, D'Anglas de Praviel and Paul C.L. Alexandre Rand des Adrets (dit Sander Rang). Reprint 1968 by Jean de Bonnot éditeur., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19330900

James talked about the work of the scholar John van Wyhe who scoured through Darwin and Fitzroy’s diaries and journals to reconstruct the day-to-day itinerary for the HMS Beagle during the 5 year voyage and lists location, latitude/longitude coordinates and where Darwin was located – either on ship or on land. When you break down of the 1,740 day voyage you realize Darwin made great efforts to spend time away from the ship. From Darwin’s perspective he almost equally split his time between being at sea, at anchor or traveling on land. Based on the itinerary of the Beagle Darwin spent 580 days at Sea, 566 days at anchor and 594 days away from the Beagle on overland excursions. 

Interesting, even when anchored or exploring on land, Darwin would return to sleep on the Beagle which he found to be very comforting.  Darwin spent 1,144 nights on the beagle (65.8% of the trip) whereas he spent 596 nights off ship which is only 34.2% of the trip. Over half (55%) of that time was spent in South America alone. 

James discussed how Darwin's diary and notebooks in the first 2 months of the journey included interesting details that were absent in the Voyage. In particular, Josh talked about the ritualized hazing that sailors would inflict on the new crew members when they crossed the equator, a ritual called the line-crossing ceremony.

Josh referenced this nice article from the Atlas Obscura website that discusses the odd ritual of hazing as one crosses an imaginary line on the earth's surface. Sarah also talked about the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn and how the wind patterns associated with those imaginary lines on the earth drove trans-Atlantic slave trade and the conquest of the New World.

We focused on the first overland trip that Darwin took when he landed in Brazil. This was the first of many trips that Darwin took while Captain Fitzroy fastidiously checked his charts and maps by reiterately sailing up and down the coast of South America.

http://www.mun.ca/biology/scarr/Voyage_of_the_Beagle.jpg

As Darwin traveled overland he mentioed many interesting animals and plants he encountered in the jungles of Brazil. One group of animals Darwin became enamored with was planaria (Plathyhelminthes). Interesting, even to this day new species of flatworms are being discovered in Brazil.

James pointed out that this group of animals also exhibit great species diversity in the marine habitat where they show a beautiful diversity in colors. Here are just few examples of the amazing color diversity of marine flatworms one can find with a simple google image search.

Sarah became obsessed, like Darwin, with bioluminescence. Sarah discussed the amazing evolution of bioluminescence and how it has evolved independently across a number of disparate phyla and kingdoms. Darwin was particularly enamored by a large click beetle that incorporates bioluminescence in mating display. One of our students took a wonderful picture of the same beetle during our Tropical Ecology class to Belize.

photo by Kali Mattingly

The opening and closing theme to Discovering Darwin is "May" by Jared C. Balogh. 
Interlude music http://freemusicarchive.org/music/DubRaJah/Reprise/7_Chitwan

Season 2 Episode 2 - and he dies.......at the end.

In this episode we discuss the extensive library on the HMS Beagle that was created by Charles Darwin and Robert Fitzroy.  Over 400 books were in the ship's library and the catalog had a heavy emphasis on travel accounts (travelogues), natural history and geology.  We discussed Humboldt and his influence on Darwin and Jeremy told the story about the dragon tree and Darwin's wish to travel the lands of Humboldt to see the same sights as Humboldt.

Dragon trees in the canary islands (picture from http://pixdaus.com/canary-islands-dragon-tree-or-drago-tree/items/view/267293/)

Here is Humboldt's description of the dragon tree-

Although we were acquainted, from the narratives of so many travellers, with the dragon-tree of the garden of Mr. Franqui, we were not the less struck with it's enormous magnitude. We were told, that the trunk of this tree, which is mentioned in several very ancient documents as marking the boundaries of a field, was as gigantic in the fifteenth century, as it is at the present moment. It's height appeared to us to be about 50 or 60 feet; it's circumference near the roots is 45 feet. We could not measure higher, but Sir George Staunton found, that, 10 feet from the ground, the diameter of the trunk is still 12 English feet; which corresponds perfectly with the assertion of Borda, who found it's mean circumference 33 feet 8 inches, French measure. The trunk is divided into a great number of branches, which rise in the form of a candelabrum, and are terminated by tufts of leaves, like the yucca which adorns the valley of Mexico. It is this division, which gives it a very different appearance from that of the palm-tree*. [Humboldt, Alexander von. 1814-1829. Personal narrative of travels to the equinoctial regions of the New Continent, during the years 1799-1804. pgs 144-145]

Since 36% of the books in the Beagle library were travelogues, and Darwin's own Voyage of the Beagle is a travelogue, we invited Dr. Jeremy Paden, professor of Spanish Literature at Transylvania University, to discuss with us the role of travelogues in the 16th-19th century as a literature form.

During our discussion Jeremy highlighted Thomas Falkner as an influential travelogue writer who wrote  A description of Patagonia, and the adjoining parts of South America (1774).  Falkner described the region of Patagonia, a rugged area at the tip of of South America that also encompassed the Streights of Magellan.

Straits of Magellan

Unlike the map above which show the Straits of Magellan as a simple channel, the real Straits of Magellan are quite complex and convoluted as seen in the Google map below. Notice the large number of cul-de-sac inlets and waterways that can easy lead you astray.

We noted that the tip of South America looks more like a spongiform brain that has mad cow disease as shown in the image below, left image is a brain with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and brain on the right is normal brain.

James highlighted an unusual book in the collection - Werner's Colours, a small book that includes colour swatches that Darwin used as reference when he was taking notes of specimens.

Excerpt from Werner's Colours

You can peruse the entire Beagle library at the Darwin Online website.

At the end of the podcast we spoke with Dr. Paden about his own research and interest in poetry. James mentioned his appreciation of Jeremy's poem on the liver fluke parasite and we reprint it here-

Compulsion

Falling from the masticating jaws of ungulates

that clip the tips of grass blades, the black ant

escapes this evening’s immolation

and the circuitous route of cud-balls,

from stomach to teeth, stomach to teeth.

Ignorant of why it leaves the sweet feast

of slime balls secreted by common land snails,

come dusk, the ant climbs again the broad green

leaf to spend the night in sirshasana​,​

pinschers clamped ​to the end of a grass blade.

Larval lancet liver flukes, encysted

in snail-trail droppings, once eaten,​ move to​

the ganglion below the gullet,​ and force ​​

Formica fusca to climb​ the blade​ and

wait for the grazing cattle to come home.

If you are interested in reading more of Jeremy Paden's poems you can find his published book of poems concerning mining in Chile here or here.

The opening and closing theme to Discovering Darwin is "May" by Jared C. Balogh. 
Interlude music was Procreation by Little Glass Men

Season 2 Episode 1: Hot Coffee

 This is the first episode for Season 2 of Discovering Darwin. We have titled this season Darwin the Adventurer because we plan to explore in detail the Voyage of the Beagle, Darwin's five year around-the-world survey in which he collected the specimens and made the observations that ultimately led him to develop his theory of evolution and write On the Origin of Species.

In this episode we introduce the three major characters involved in the famous voyage- Captain Robert Fitzroy, Charles Darwin and the ship the HMS Beagle.

HMS Beagle in the Galapagos (painted by John Chancellor)

Josh introduced us to Pringle Stokes, the original captain of the Beagle during its maiden voyage (1826-1830) to South America on a survey voyage to map the Straits of Magellan at the tip of South America. However the HSM Beagle, a Cherokee class brig-sloop which were often derogatorily referred to as "coffin brigs", was a difficult ship to control in the severe winds, strong currents, high seas, and rogue icebergs that were typically encountered around Cape Horn. Josh explained how Pringle Stokes commits suicide on the ship in 1828 and Robert Fitzroy is assigned to captain the ship after Stokes demise.

Robert Fitzroy - photo by Hemus, Charles 1849?-1925
[Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

We talked about the contingencies of history and how some tierra del fuegian children became the nexus for Fitzroy, Darwin and the HMS Beagle.  We will dedicate a later episode to the depressing tale of Jemmy Buttons, York Minister and Fuegia Basket, kidnapped tierra del fuegians who rejected their roles as Christian missionaries for England and forever haunted Robert Fitzroy and many others back in England.

Drawings by Robert Fitzroy

Because of Robert Fitzroy's short temper and willingness to lash out to those crew members he felt were wanting he was given the nickname "Hot Coffee" by the crew.  A meticulous man and data collector, Fitzroy would often retrace his sailing path to confirm his charts and maps, a level of meticulousness that would exasperate his crew and Darwin.

Fitzroy's iterative approach to sailing. Map from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Beagle-ship

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The opening and closing theme to Discovering Darwin is "May" by Jared C. Balogh. 

Interlude music is Rite of Passage by Kevin MacLeod