3 Review(s)

First published in 1863, this is a first-hand account of Henry Walter Bates' eleven-year expedition to the river Amazon in 1848, during which he discovered some eight thousand species unknown to the natural sciences. Written in the first person, it records the astonishing range of natural life in the regions traversed by the Amazon and its tributaries. Describing his adventures south of the equator, Bates takes the reader through Para, Tocantins, Cameta, Marajo, Caripi, Obydos, Manos, Santarem, Tapajos, and Ega, descriptively cataloguing the rich vegetation, aboriginal population, and wondrous birds, animals and insects of these regions. More than just a scientist's log, the work that took Bates three years to complete was considered by Darwin to be 'the best work of natural history travels ever published in England.' This third edition of the book (1873) also contains numerous illustrations by the noted zoologist Joseph Wolf.