Science: Treasureless Island

No scientific expedition in North America in years has attracted more attention than that given during the past fortnight to a party, sponsored by Manhattan’s American Museum of Natural History, which was exploring a lofty plateau called Shiva Temple in Arizona’s Grand Canyon. Nevertheless it seemed to some skeptical observers that the expedition which started out with the trappings of a scientific romance, had by last week assumed the cap & bells of a scientific joke.

Shiva is the Hindu god of destruction. Shiva Temple was so named by Major John Wesley Powell, leader of the first white man’s march through the Grand Canyon in 1869. Some 300 acres in extent, the plateau towers 4,000 ft. above the canyon floor, 1,200 above a saddle which runs across to the canyon wall, twelve miles from the Grand Canyon railroad station. The butte is said by geologists to have been carved out by erosion between 12,000 and 35,000 years ago. First reports made it appear that the plateau on top was something like a penthouse garden on the roof of a skyscraper, but such is not the case. Though arduous, the ascent to the top is far from impossible and the worst of the climb is confined to a steep sandstone slope near the top. Yet before the expedition reached its goal, Shiva Temple was touted as a “biological island” whose animal life, if any remained, must have been isolated from the “mainland” since the Ice Ages. These unknown creatures, evolving in their own way for thousands of years, would shed a brilliant light on the mechanics of evolution.

Last fortnight Dr. Harold Elmer Anthony, expedition leader and curator of mammals at the American Museum, and a companion were hoisted up the difficult sandstone ledges by five experienced guides. After one night Dr. Anthony’s companion came down — alone — to the base camp on the saddle with two “leaf-eared mice” which he had caught in traps. These turned out to be similar to other leaf-eared mice inhabiting the region. Hunters and natives winked and snickered around the campfire, hinted that where scientists could go animals could go. George Borup Andrews, son of famed Explorer Roy Chapman Andrews went up to join Leader Anthony.

It was soon obvious that a good many animals did not regard Shiva Temple as a “biological island.” Naturalists Anthony and Andrews trapped or shot more mice, woodrats, chipmunks, a cottontail rabbit and observed droppings of deer and coyote all over the place. Even humans had ascended Shiva Temple, as primitive tools and ornaments attested. Eight days after the expedition began Mr. Andrews came down to admit that none of the specimens was “spectacular.” Leader Anthony, however, thought he detected a “pale characteristic” in the animals—for example, a grey stripe in the chipmunks—and unusually “xerophytic” plants.* The mosquitoes, he said, seemed to have forgotten how to bite. But among nearly 100 animal specimens collected there was not a single new species, let alone a new genus or a new family. A general air of disappointment was discernible. When Dr. Anthony descended at last, after ten days aloft, the others had gone off to climb nearby Wotan’s Throne, another possible but not probable “biological island.”

* Xerophytic refers to vegetation adapted to a dry climate.