This Thing Of Darkness (42 page)

‘No, no. I should say I
wish
to learn everything about your country.’

‘You are not a spy?’ The old man’s eyes narrowed.

‘I wish only to learn of the animals and birds and plants and rocks. Today we have made a most wonderful discovery - a great head. The head of a mammal — a dead animal — many thousands of years old. It is as wide as a man is tall. On the beach at Punta Alta. It is a great rarity.’

‘A big dragon-head.’ Realization dawned upon the old major. ‘The children like to play games with them. They knock out the teeth with stones. It is a good game.’

Darwin was momentarily nonplussed. The
comandante
gestured to the side door of the room. Darwin half rose from his stool, and craned his neck to see into the courtyard outside. There, grinning toothlessly back at him, was a Megatherium head identical - other than dentally - to the one they had spent all day excavating at the beach.

‘I will sell you three for a paper dollar, if you wish,’ said the major.

 

When the constraints of time eventually forced FitzRoy and his officers to abandon excavations at Punta Alta, the exposed cliff had yielded two further Megatherii, a Megalonyx measuring seventy-two feet from snout to tail, an icthyosaurus longer than the
Beagle
herself, an ant-eater the size of a rhinoceros, a twenty-foot armadillo, an extinct variety of horse and an aquatic rodent the size of an elephant. The ship’s once-pristine deck was thick with giant bones caked in blue clay.

‘Damned seal and whalebones!’ Mr Wickham shouted in exasperation. ‘Philos, you bring more dirt on board than any ten men!’

FitzRoy decided to run the
Beagle
back to Buenos Ayres to see if the specimens could be dispatched home by an English merchant there. Over a supper of water-hog shot by Bynoe, he and Darwin debated the implications of their haul.

‘The approach of a general calamity - the rising waters - would have affected the animals’ instinct for self-preservation,’ hazarded FitzRoy. ‘They would have been
drawn
to the ark. Then, as the creatures approached, might it not have been easy to admit some, perhaps the young and the small, while the old and the large were excluded?’

‘I don’t know,’ said Darwin unhappily. ‘The stated dimensions of the ark are but three hundred cubits by fifty cubits. How could all creation be herded into one vessel? Would the beasts not simply have destroyed one another? The story has always vexed me.’

‘Master Charles,’ admonished FitzRoy gently, ‘does not the exclusion of these monstrous creatures answer your question? Where are they now? Drowned, of course, in the deluge.’

‘Where, then, are the human fossils? If all humanity was wiped out at the same time, should not there be human bones entombed with those of the Megatherium, or the other great beasts that have been found across the globe? Perhaps these vast creatures walked the earth at a different date, an earlier date.’

‘A different date? My dear fellow, I need hardly tell you of all people that the scriptures allow no room for debate on the issue. Genesis two, nineteen: “And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them.”’

‘Come, come, my dear FitzRoy, you know as well as I that the scriptures are contradictory. In Genesis one, twenty-four, the Lord brings forth all living creatures
before
He maketh man on the sixth day, having already created fish and fowl on the fifth day. What if, as de Luc contends, these “days” were not days as we know them but great ages, epochs lasting many thousands of years? What if man never encountered these monstrous beasts?’

‘But, my dear Philos, you heard the
comandante.
A “dragon-head”, he called it. What, pray, are dragons, wyverns, griffins and so forth, if not the memory of huge mammals and reptiles handed down by tradition? What were the leviathan and the behemoth if not the megalosaurus and the iguanodon? Human folk-history contains innumerable mentions of such beasts. As to the human fossils, de Luc also contends that, in many places, earth and sea have changed places over the centuries. Perhaps human fossils await discovery at the bottom of our great oceans.’

‘But what if early man derived their dragon-tales from the discovery of great skeletons such as we have found? What if, far from actually encountering such beasts, they merely wove them into their myths and stories? Answer me this: if there was indeed an ark, why are the animals of the New World entirely separate from those of the Old? Why are the armadillo and the ant-eater confined entirely to South America, and the elephant and the rhinoceros restricted to the rest of the globe? If all creatures issued from the one ark, would they not follow each other to all corners? But no! All creation is divided into geographical groups. And what fossils do we find in South America?
Giant
armadillos.
Giant
anteaters. The monstrous relatives of the modern animal population. Just as fossil elephants and rhinoceros are only to be found in Africa and Asia.’

‘Great heavens, Philos, one would hardly believe you a parson-in-waiting. Let me bring you over. Did not Noah’s sons Shem, Ham and Japheth go forth separately and beget the different races in the different parts of the world? Would it be beyond the good Lord to spread the animals of the ark over the lands newly laid dry
according to their origin?
Would He not logically return the armadillo to the lands whence it came, and the same for the rhinoceros? Besides, your argument is disproved by our friend the horse. The Spaniards introduced the horse to the New World. When they arrived, the horse was unknown to the native population. It has since thrived. Yet what did we discover at Punta Alta? A fossil horse. This is perfect horse-country, yet every horse that once inhabited these lands was wiped out at some point in history Only a mighty deluge could have done such a thing. Which is why, perhaps’ - FitzRoy smiled - ‘the good Lord brought the Spanish here, to restock the horse population.’

‘Please. My dear FitzRoy, I do not doubt the majesty of God’s creation for one instant. But a wooden vessel, stocked with pairs of animals by a six-hundred-year-old man? Noah is said to have been fetched an olive-leaf by a dove when the waters receded. Yet how did a deluge that would flatten and submerge the very mountains themselves fail to uproot or flatten a simple olive tree? It is a most unbelievable tale!’

Irritation began to temper FitzRoy’s affection for his friend. ‘You doubt the Noachian deluge? Have you not seen the diluvial evidence for yourself? There are water-smoothed stones and shell beds on mountainsides, drowned creatures above the high-water mark, unsorted deposits of clay and gravel and huge boulders scattered across the high hills and valleys - why, the very shape of the hills and valleys themselves shouts out to us of the deluge. And what of the evidence of the heathen peoples? Mesopotamian texts speak of the earth being destroyed by a mighty flood. Even the Hindoos know of the deluge. They speak of one man alone, Manu, being spared by God from the destruction of all humankind. Clearly, it is a garbled account of the Biblical flood. With such compelling evidence before you, can you doubt that the creatures at Punta Alta were wiped out by a massive catastrophe — the very catastrophe described in such detail in the Book of Genesis?’

‘I do not seek to undermine the Book of Genesis, FitzRoy, or the word of God. What do you take me for? But there are contradictions therein, anomalies, passages that could be interpreted figuratively. For instance, the lower one geologizes into the rock, the earlier the strata, the simpler the life-forms one finds: not human beings, but great reptiles, giant armadillos, even. Does this not suggest to you an older earth than one which was created in seven days?’

‘You presume that the rock is older because the life-forms are simpler. You presume that the life-forms are simpler because the rock is older. You are dating one by the other. Perhaps the strata are not as simple or as progressively layered as you seem to think. What of the modern-day shells preserved in the clay
below
the Megatherium head? Besides, who is to say that a giant armadillo or ant-eater is any simpler than a small one? One might argue the very opposite. Your arguments begin to sound dangerously like those of your grandfather, or of Lamarck.’

‘Perhaps the smaller versions of these creatures were better suited to the sparse vegetation of these parts. Perhaps their bigger cousins did not have enough to eat - who is to say? I am only speculating. Such enormous herbivores would have required a colossal supply of vegetation. Perhaps they were forced to compete for it, and lost that competition.’

‘The vegetation of Africa is no less sparse than the vegetation of these parts, and yet it supports vast numbers of elephant and rhinoceros. In the Brazils, however, where the vegetation is lush and abundant, there are no large herbivores. What you suggest does not follow. Besides, we know nothing of the state of the earth before the flood - or the atmosphere surrounding it; we do not know if it moved in the same orbit; or if it turned on its axis in the same manner; or whether it had huge masses of ice near the poles. Have not fossil rhinoceros bones been found near the Arctic?’

‘Cuvier believes that there may have been a series of floods.’ FitzRoy seized a book from the shelf behind his head and riffled through it. ‘Allow me to quote Buckland, a geological authority without peer, I think you will agree. “The grand fact of a
universal deluge
at no very remote period is proved on grounds so decisive and incontrovertible that, had we never heard of such an event from scripture, or any other authority, geology of
itself
must have called in the assistance of some such catastrophe to explain the phenomena of diluvian action
which are universally presented to us.”’
He slammed the book down on the table.

“‘Great men are not always wise” - Job thirty-two, nine,’ Darwin responded stubbornly.

On the point of raising his voice in frustration, FitzRoy thought better of it. ‘Tell me, my dear friend, is it the case that you are no longer inwardly moved by the Holy Spirit?’

‘Of course I am,’ said Darwin, ‘but ...’ He tailed off.

‘Do you wish to talk to me about it?’

 

Spruced up with red ochre, coal-tar and whitewash, and scrubbed free of the fatty coating of a thousand boiled seals, the
Paz
and the
Liebre
had metamorphosed into smart little cock-boats. The crew gathered around admiringly as they bobbed jauntily beside the
Beagle,
while inside his cabin FitzRoy put the final touches to the contract: to Mr James Harris of the Rio Negro, for one year’s hire of both boats, plus the services of himself and Mr Roberts as pilots, the sum of £1680.

‘And I thought the headroom on the old
Beagle
was barely sufficient,’ said Stokes ruefully, lowering himself into the main cabin of the Paz, which - although a spacious seven foot square - was an ungenerous thirty inches in height. He would be sharing this cramped space for the next twelve months with Roberts, the sealer, and Midshipman Mellersh.

‘Pretty boats!’ said Fuegia Basket, and clapped her hands with delight.

‘Think yourself lucky you will not be sharing with Harris,’ laughed Wickham, who was to have the privilege of wedging himself into an even smaller cabin in the
Liebre,
alongside the boat’s owner and Midshipman King.

The prospect of being second-in-command of his very own vessel, on a year’s expedition to survey the bays and channels south of Bahia Blanca, had seemed to King the very idea of heaven on earth; until, that is, he too had inspected the principal cabin. Then the reality - that he would be spending the whole of the following year squeezed into a corner by Harris’s sweating bulk - had sunk in. He and Darwin stood forlornly at the starboard rail. The philosopher’s initial guilty pleasure at getting their whole cabin to himself had dissipated somewhat, as he had come to realize how much he would miss the dependable Stokes, the egregious Wickham and his best pal, the young midshipman by his side. Sulivan, who would become acting first lieutenant of the
Beagle,
looked on with misgivings of his own, for he did not wish to accede to Wickham’s position in such a manner. He steeled himself to beard FitzRoy in private.

‘Let me go in Wickham’s place, sir. It will be a rotten uncomfortable year for them, and Mr Wickham takes such a pride in the
Beagle.’

‘Your suggestion is generous to a fault, Mr Sulivan. However - naval etiquette bids me do otherwise. If the expedition is to divide in two, then my second-in-command must take charge of the second part.’

‘Then how about Stokes? He has been with you from the start, sir - he has surely earned his place on the
Beagle.’

‘Mr Stokes is my best surveyor. I doubt that anyone else in the ship could map such a maze. Besides, were you to replace him, then I should find myself
sans
lieutenants.’

‘If only the Admiralty had sanctioned the hire of two more luxurious vessels — they are but cockleshells.’

‘Only cockleshells, I fear, possess a sufficiently shallow draught for the task. Besides, the Admiralty has not sanctioned the hire of any vessels.’

‘But then how — ?’

‘They are requisitioned on my own responsibility.’ ‘You are not authorized?’ Sulivan’s face wore a faintly appalled look.

‘I have memorialized Whitehall seeking authorization. I hope to obtain it retrospectively.’

‘But if you do not?’

‘Then I shall be sixteen hundred and eighty pounds the poorer.’

Sulivan gasped. It was an astonishing sum for one man to bear, even a wealthy man like FitzRoy.

‘I believe that their lordships will approve of what I have done. But if I am wrong no inconvenience will result to the public service, since I am alone responsible, and am willing to pay the stipulated sum.’