環境改變與生態惡化：十九世紀英美旅行者筆下的福爾摩沙

Environmental Changes and Ecodegradation: The Delineations of Nineteenth-Century Formosa in the Writings of Nineteenth-Century English and American Travelers

對多數十九世紀的西方人來說，福爾摩沙是一片神秘而詭譎的未知領土（terra incognita）。1860年，清廷因天津條約被迫開港通商，於是大批歐美旅者──包含探險家、自然科學家、傳教士、外交官、攝影家、海外商人等──紛紛造訪福爾摩沙。在此時空下，英國生物學家克林伍德（Cuthbert Collingwood, 1826-1908）、英國駐打狗領事斯溫侯（Robert Swinhoe, 1836-1877）、美國自然史學家蒂瑞（Joseph Beal Steere, 1842-1940）等人先後造訪打狗、基隆、淡水等地，並詳細記錄與描述各地的地理風貌或水陸動物、鳥類、植物以及自然資源（如高山林木和礦產）。在描述福爾摩沙地貌環境的同時，部份西方旅行者亦在其自然環境踏查紀行中先知先覺地記錄了人類開採大地資源時所造成的環境改變或生態惡化（ecological degradation），這些文本遂成為書寫台灣環境破壞之生態文學作品先驅。近年來有關台灣自然環境的電影作品或生態文學在東亞生態批評（East Asian ecocriticism）領域漸受注意，然而十九世紀英美旅行者書寫福爾摩沙自然環境的文本仍未受到關注與青睞，絕大多數生態批評學者忽略了這些文本的存在。此文填補十九世紀英美自然書寫的拼圖缺塊，將一群鮮為人知的、被排除在主流文學典律之外的早期英美旅行作家的文本納入自然（環境）書寫的研究領域中。此文聚焦於陶德（John Dodd, 1838-1907）、克林伍德、斯溫侯、戴維森（James Wheeler Davidson, 1872-1933）、和瓊恩（George Jones, 1800-1870）筆下的環境改變與生態惡化──特別是山林採伐、空氣污染、物種數量減少之議題，探究這些作家如何書寫十九世紀後半期福爾摩沙的地貌與地景環境之改變，進而先知先覺地表露初期環境意識和生態感知。藉此探討，此文欲指出十九世紀英美旅行者描述並記錄福爾摩沙的自然史書寫實乃醞釀後代環境保護觀念和生態意識的重要文本。

For most mid-nineteenth-century Europeans and Americans, Formosa was little-known. To explore this terra incognita, plenty of Westerners (including diplomats, imperialist business adventurers, natural history scientists, proselytizing missionaries, and legitimate traders) visited Formosa after the opening of Takau Port and Tamsui Port for trade in 1860. These travelers delineated Formosa's flora and fauna and recorded the island's unknown landscapes and natural resources, including coal, sulphur, petroleum, gold, camphor, and so forth. Mostly written in the form of travel journals, the works of these Western travelers were also pioneering nature writings that documented Formosa's ecological degradation and environmental changes in the nineteenth century. This paper focuses on the representations of environmental damages and ecodegradation in the traveling natural histories of Cuthbert Collingwood (1826-1908), Robert Swinhoe (1836-1877), John Dodd (1838-1907), James Wheeler Davidson (1872-1933), and George Jones (1800-1870). Specific questions that arise in this paper include: How might the genre of natural history relate to non-fictional travel narratives and environmental history? How did Collingwood, Swinhoe, Davidson, Dodd, and Jones offered an accurate transcript of the massive destruction of nature (particularly the devastation of marine species and camphor-trees)? In their traveling natural histories, how did these foreign travelers express their environmental awareness, environmentalist tone, or ecological sensibility?