Customer Reviews

Galapagos: World's End

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In anticipation of a forthcoming trip to the Galapagos a visit to the local library turned up this 1924 book by Wm Beebe. Somewhat to my astonishment, the book captivated me. Wm Beebe (1877-1962) was not (as I heretofore had thought) merely a one-dimensioned, deep sea explorer. World traveler, naturalist, director of the NY Zoological Society -- he wrote books ranging from birding to jungle exploration. Beebe turns out to have been an early 20th century Loren Eiseley. This book records a 1923 trip undertaken by fourteen scientists from New York to the Galapagos in a steam power yacht, provided by a wealthy patron. They were later to learn that it was more suited to ladies "sipping tea" than oceanic cruising. They discovered to their astonishment that it was "neither an inexhaustible reservoir of fresh water, nor a floating coal mine". They had to cut short their Galapagos collecting and beat an unplanned retreat to Panama for more provisions. Beebe is a very readable author, with many a well turned phrase sprinkled thru the book. He describes the ocean voyage as, "... driving a momentary wedge thru sunshine, wind, and water..." Later, in a small boat, going ashore in the Galapagos, he describes the gentle swell "...which rose and fell as if the Pacific were breathing quietly and regularly." Accordingly, when it came time to jump, he appropriately waited for the ocean to "exhale". He finds both comfort and wonder in contemplating the Darwinian explanation of all he sees. For Beebe, there is an "honour of being one with all about me and in a small way to have at least an understanding..." He marvels, for example, in picking up a crustacean's shell, that having parted ways uncountable millions of years previously, now, quite by accident, they cross again. Beebe deplores both the early sailing depredations of the tortises and the wholesale slaughter of animals by previous scientific expeditions (how many flightless cormorants do you need to get an accurate description?). This expedition restricts themselves to capturing various specimens, which they hauled back to the NYC Zoo. They also took back sacks full of lava rocks, sand, plants, etc with which to make scenic dioramas in the AM Museum of NH. On page 265 one comes across the single most arresting observation in this book. As usual, profundity lies hidden in the details. It seems that Beebe "secured" (his euphimism for collecting) several specimens of different Darwin finches on Daphne, and found to his astonishment that their crops all contained identical food items, despite their differing bill shapes. All, even the heavy beaked birds, for exaple had uncrushed seeds in their crops. He repeated this observations several times, always with the same results. So there is more to the oft repeated, now almost cannonical evolutionary explanation of the differing finch beaks. The various finches are all eating the same things! Natural selection provides what appears to be a reasonable hypothesis to explain the various beaks, but what is really going on? I can think of no less than four explanations, but that is another tale. If anybody reads this and is curious, I am at proode@pol.net.

I found it terribly dry and difficult to wade through, despite the fact that I was on my way to the Galapagos. Even after I got back home, I simply couldn't get through it. I is scientific to a fault, in my opinion and although it reads like a novel, I thought it got bogged down in the minutia of specimen collections.

"More than 100 splendid illustrations"
Nope. No splendid illustrations. Forget about it.
There's, according to the book:
- 39 drawings
- 75 photos
But, according to me, there's:
- 16 clipped colored drawings on the book cover and flaps.
- 114 flat, whithout contrast, poorly printed black-and-white photos.
So, it's basically a text book with some photo's inside. I didn't read it already, but I'm posting this so you don't buy this like me, expecting for "splendid illustrations" and ended up with an text book. Poorly impressed. On poor paper.
But wait, there's the color cover...
I shall update this when finishing reading. I hope the text worth it.

William Beebe's Galapagos: World's End was published in 1924, so it it is certainly not a substitute for more recent books such as Michael H. Jackson's Galapagos: A Natural History, Jonathan Weiner's The Beak of the Finch, Oxford and Watkins's Galapagos: Both Sides of the Coin, Jonathan Green's Galapagos: Ocean, Earth, Wind & Fire, or Tui de Roy's Spectacular Galapagos. However, Beebe's book contains a wealth of information about the history of the Galapagos, particularly that of the various pirates and privateers who used it as a base of operations, and of Porter's operations against the British whaling fleet during the War of 1812. Beebe's descriptions of what land exploration was like on the Galapagos back in those days(very, very rough) made me very appreciative of the excellent work Ecuador has done in making these fascinating islands readily accessible to elderly and creaky folks like me. I was quite interested to note the changes in our understanding of the biology and geology of these islands that have taken place between the time the book was written (1924) and the present; science, like life, evolves. The technologies of photography and photographic reproduction have also evolved, fortunately; some of the old black and white photographs reproduced in Beebe's book are almost unrecognizable.

Beebe visited the Galapagos long before they became a 'must see' holy site for those of us interested in geology and evolutionary biology; at that time a visit to the Galapagos was a major expedition requiring lots of money, a steam yacht, and lots of planning--definitely not a jaunt for a casual tourist. So, while he describes in some detail the devastating environmental impacts of pirates and privateers, whalers, rats, goats, and other exotic invaders, he makes no mention of the environmental impacts one might expect from large-scale tourism on these fragile islands. As a recent visitor, I must compliment Ecuador on its efforts to protect and preserve these islands while simultaneously allowing those of us who find them fascinating to make our visits.

If you are interested in the Galapagos or are actually planning a visit, Beebe's book definitely should be on your reading list, along with more current material.