Season 2 Episode 10 - Home Again, Home Again, Jiggidy Jig

In this, the final episode of Season 2, Darwin does some island hoping, takes a surprising return trip to Brazil, and on October 2, 1836, finishes his 4 year 9 month journey. In this episode of the podcast we are joined by Dr. Belinda Sly, a evolutionary developmental biologist and colleague of ours, to discuss Darwin, his thoughts about the voyage, and if it had an effect on Darwin's mental health.

The final two chapters of the Voyage of the Beagle are unusual in that Darwin's writing style oscillates between dry technical accounts on how coral atolls are formed, and how different plants, insects, and animals naturally colonize these isolated islands in the middle of the ocean with very melodic and romantic descriptions of the landscapes and peoples he encountered on these far away islands.

Atolls

http://geologylearn.blogspot.com/

One can imagine how disorienting sailors must have been when they first encountered the unusual geological structure of an island atoll.

http://geologylearn.blogspot.com/

A ring structure of land that either encompasses a calm marine harbor that may or may not also include an island in the middle, as seen in the Bora Bora atoll above. Darwin proposed that these unique structures came about through two natural process occurring at the same rate. The volcano that rose from the deep ocean floor and erupted to originally form the island would go dormant and begin to erode away.  Once the volcano had cooled, marine corals would begin to colonize the new island in the shallow waters to create the coral reef. Slowly the volcano would subside back into the ocean and concurrently the corals would grow upward and outward at the same rate as the island eroded and sank.

http://darwin-online.org.uk/

Darwin was the first to actually propose the correct geological model for atoll formation and he spends many pages of Chapter XX explaining his model.

Unfortunately Dr. Josh Adkins was unable to join us on the final episode but you can get your Josh fix by listening to his award-winning podcast The CromCast, a podcast dedicated to weird fiction that also has the occasional Bourbons and Barbarians episodes, a series that entertainingly combine bourbon with old school D&D.


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

Interlude music is Remember the Way by Mid Air Machine

Season 2 Episode 9-without sorrow or regret

"At daylight, Tahiti, an island which must for ever remain classical to the voyager in the South Sea, was in view. At a distance the appearance was not attractive. The luxuriant vegetation of the lower part could not yet be seen, and as the clouds rolled past, the wildest and most precipitous peaks showed themselves towards the centre of the island. As soon as we anchored in Matavai Bay, we were surrounded by canoes. This was our Sunday, but the Monday of Tahiti: if the case had been reversed, we should not have received a single visit; for the injunction not to launch a canoe on the sabbath is rigidly obeyed. After dinner we landed to enjoy all the delights produced by the first impressions of a new country, and that country the charming Tahiti. A crowd of men, women, and children, was collected on the memorable Point Venus, ready to receive us with laughing, merry faces." Chapter XVIII-Voyage of the Beagle 

After 1.5 year absence, Sarah, Josh and James return to the podcast to finish Voyage of the Beagle. We left Charles out in the Pacific Ocean, sailing the 3,200 miles from the Galapagos to Tahiti. It took the Beagle nearly a month to cover that distance and the sailing was difficult. Tahiti was a welcome sight.

A long and brilliantly-white beach is capped by a margin of green vegetation; and the strip, looking either way, rapidly narrows away in the distance, and sinks beneath the horizon. From the mast-head a wide expanse of smooth water can be seen within the ring. These low hollow coral islands bear no proportion to the vast ocean out of which they abruptly rise; and it seems wonderful, that such weak invaders are not overwhelmed, by the all-powerful and never-tiring waves of that great sea, miscalled the Pacific.

An Aerial View Of Tahiti...
By Sylvain Grandadam

 Darwin enjoyed the hospitality of the native Tahitians and the rich abundance of fruits, roasted bananas and pineapples, which he admitted tasted better than any pineapple cultivated in a hothouse in England.  While in Tahiti, Darwin embarked on the last of his difficult and challenging hikes when he went with two native Tahitians to hike into the valley of Tia-auru. When I lived in Kauai I hiked around the north shore and I imagine the landscape there is not much different from the Tahitian landscape, both are volcanic islands with Kauai being older (5 million years old) than Tahiti (1.6 million years old).

View of a valley in Kauai that looks like Tahitian landscape

In New Zealand Darwin noted the cultural tradition of the native New Zealanders (Maori) tattooing their lips and areas around their face. We discussed how Darwin recognized the role of fashion in a culture and admitted that his bare un-tattooed face was as unsettling to the Maoris as their inked faces were to him.

http://servatius.blogspot.com/2015/10/maori-couple-1880s-with-facial-tattoos.html

A wonderful description of Maori traditional tattoos can be found here.

Calling for Suggestions

Dear Listeners-

We will be recording the final episode of Season 2 Discovering Darwin in the upcoming weeks and we are asking for suggestions for Season 3. We are open to doing a close reading on a Darwin book, if you are unfamiliar with all of the works of Charles Darwin check out Darwin Online  to see the options available. Or we can focus Season 3 on a topic or text in the style of Season 2 - Darwin the Adventurer - which used the Voyage of the Beagle as a framework for our episodes. Please make your listener's requests in the comment section of this Blogspot. We look forward to hearing your ideas. Thanks for your support.

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