Corley Smith, G.T.

English

Aquatic Commons

GALAPAGOS: A NATURAL HISTORY GUIDE
by UH. Jackson
Published 1985, Univ. of Calgary Press, XIII + 283 including 100 black & white iIIustrations
and 16 pages fuD color.
U.S. $17.50 (outside of Canada) + $3.00 P&H.
2500 University Drive N.W., Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N lN4.
Also available froro Bradt Publications, 41 Norcroft Road, Chalfont St Peter, Bucks, SL9 OLA, England.
Price: U4.85
Despite the recent flood of Galapagos books, this latest one covers a somewhat different field from the rest
and so meets a different need. It is neither a slim pocket guide such as M.P. Harris's Field Guide to the Birds
ofthe Galapagos nor yet an authoritative compilation of scientific information written by experts on their
specialist subjects, such as GALAPAGOS in the Pergamon Press's Key Environments series. Mr Jackson's
guide book falls somewhere between the two and he very properly draws freely on these and other sources.
It is a substantial soft-backed volume dealing with the historical background, the environmental setting,
conservation problems and information for visitors, as well as eight substantial chapters on the various
divisions of wildlife (plants, reptiles, seabirds, etc.). There is also a l5-page bibliogra phy to help those who
wish to give further study to particular aspects and a useful checklist of plants and animals.
The author's history is a little less accurate than his natural history but this is not a matter of great
moment: scientists often fail to check historical information with the care they would consider obligatory
in their own disciplines. Mr Jackson is a sound biologist and knows the islands intimately, having taken
part in the Cambridge University Darwin Centenary Galapagos Expedition as well as serving for years as
a naturalist guide. He writes simple, straightforward English with a minimum of scientific jargon even in
his chapter on Colonisation, Evolution and Ecology. When he is driven to use technical expressions, he
explains them.
Altogether this is a usefui addition to Galapagos literature. How 1wish there had been a comparable book
when 1 first visited the Galapagos a generation ago.
f
.J
G.T. Corley Smith
ANOTHER DARWIN CENTENARY
On 22 December 1985, one of Charles Darwin's grandchildren, bady Barlow, reached the age of 100. She
has always taken a very keen interest in her grandfather's papers and has published a number ofbooks on
his work. Under the name of Nora Barlow she edited Charles Darwin's Diary of the Voyage of H.M.S.
Beagle, Cambridge Univ. Press (1933), Charles Darwin and the Voyage of the Beagle (1945) and Darwin's
Ornithological Notes (Bul!. Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.) 1963). She also wrote Darwin & Henslow: the Growth of
an Idea (1967). Her publications are frequently cited in current scientific papers, though the change ofher
name on marriage must frequently obscure her Darwin descent. Her son, Captain Sir Thomas Barlow,
was Secretary General of the Darwin Foundation from 1967 to 1972.
24
Noticias de Galapagos v.43 1986


Galapagos: a natural history guide by M.H. Jackson [book review]

http://aquaticcommons.org/4744/1/NG_43_1986_Corley_Smith_Galapagos_a_natural_history_guide.pdf

Galapagos: a natural history guide by M.H. Jackson [book review]

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