The Giant Tortoise's Tale

This is the second of 3 tales to be posted. They were written immediately after The Ancestor's Tale was completed, and would have been included if Richard had visited the Galapagos Islands before the book was published.

The audio is Richard Dawkins reading the article, and video footage was then added over it.

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Filmed and Edited by Josh Timonen

"The Giant Tortoise's Tale" by Richard Dawkins

I am writing this on a boat (called the Beagle, as it happens) in the Galápagos archipelago, whose most famous inhabitants are the eponymous (in Spanish) giant tortoises, and whose most famous visitor is that giant of the mind, Charles Darwin. In his account of the voyage of the original Beagle, written long before the central idea of The Origin of Species condensed out of his brain, Darwin wrote of the Galápagos Islands:

"Most of the organic productions are aboriginal creations, found nowhere else; there is even a difference between the inhabitants of the different islands; yet all show a marked relationship with those of [South] America, though separated from that continent by an open space of ocean, between 500 and 600 miles in width. The archipelago is a little world within itself ... Considering the small size of the islands, we feel the more astonished at the number of their aboriginal beings, and at their confined range ... we seem to be brought somewhat near to that great fact - that mystery of mysteries - the first appearance of new beings on this earth."

Texto completo pode ser encontrado aqui.

Cortesia RichardDawkins.net