改变世界的岛屿

By Andrew Murray

1859年，查尔斯·达尔文的《物种起源》（The Origin of Species）面世了。在某种程度上这本书永远地改变了世界，而关于他所有思想的起源、这本《物种起源》的起源，达尔文坚信是因为24年前他踏上的一片荒岛……

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，贝格尔号（译者注：也译作小猎犬号）抵达加拉帕戈斯群岛，这是她返程前最后一次短暂的停留。为了绘制南美洲地区的海岸线地图，她已经在海上航行了三年多。现在她还有五星期的时间来给这些不为人知的岛屿绘制一张精确的、最新的地图。但这并非又一次普普通通的着陆，历史的进程将因此而改变。同在船上的还有博物学家查尔斯·达尔文。

英国人罗森在弗罗伦纳岛邮局海湾的沙滩上迎接达尔文。罗森是加拉帕戈斯有史以来第一批移民的总督。他讲述的关于加拉帕戈斯生物的奇特现象激发了达尔文深入岛屿考察的兴趣，而他每到一处都会采集标本。

达尔文离开加拉帕戈斯不久后便有了重要发现。当他在漫长的海上归程中对采集的标本进行分门别类时，一种标本突然引起了他的注意：不是巨龟，也不是雀鸟，而是嘲鸟。

查尔斯·达尔文（通过角色扮演）：我在四座不同的岛上都采集了标本。有两座岛上的看起来一样，但另两座岛上的却不一样。并且在各个岛上，雀鸟的种类都是惟一的。

这几座岛屿距离很近，可以彼此望见。但不同岛屿上的嘲鸟羽毛却略有差异，并且像雀鸟一样，它们的喙也都各有特点。达尔文现在想起了罗森总督曾说起过的一件事。总督说自己仅凭龟壳的形状就能分辨出一只龟来自哪一座岛。不同的岛屿有不同的龟种，嘲鸟也是一样的道理。

他从加拉帕戈斯奇特的地貌中看到了这些岛屿都在不断地变化。那么有没有可能，生物也在不断变化？