Pure volcano. A mantle of hot bare rock. "Nothing could be less
inviting. A broken field of black basaltic lava
thrown into most rugged waves and crossed
by fissures." Lava tubes, tuff cones and bright,
red-orange crabs. A land iguana! One saffron
leathery elbow, powdery as lichen, sticking out
like a man doing press-ups while leering at the sand.
And the marine iguana ... "Hideous! An imp of darkness.
On Albermarle they seem to grow to a larger size."
Young sea lions nip their tails for fun and fling them in the air
like cats with mice. To eat them? No — nothing here,
except one hawk, is carnivore; and none afraid of Man.
Look — giant tortoises! "Travelling eagerly, their necks
outstretched, to springs. I tried riding on their backs
but found it hard to balance! The colony's Vice-Governor
told us he knew which island any shell came from
because they differ. I did not for some time
pay this enough attention. I never dreamed
that islands sixty miles apart, made of the same stone,
of nearly equal height in the same climate,
could have different tenants." Fast forward twenty years
and you see him write of this scatter-burst of rock in open sea,
"We seem brought near that mystery of mysteries,
the first appearance of new beings on the earth."
Ruth Panel
"Darwin: A Life in Poems" is a book of poetry written by Ruth Panel, Charles Darwin's great-great-granddaughter. Its date of publication is March 2009.
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v457/n7231/full/457794a.html
