The Naturalist on the River Amazons

Climbing palms. Seven-inch monkeys. Twenty-foot anacondas. Bats with two-foot wingspans. Five-inch spiders. Bloodthirsty insects. Methods of river travel. Torrential downpours. Indigenous peoples. Henry Walter Bates' personal narrative of exploring and naturalizing in the Amazon Basin is both an enjoyable read and one of immense importance to natural history. From 1848-1859 Bates traveled throughout the Amazon and its many tributaries taking notes on everything from the natural world to the cultures and customs of the many native and non-native peoples he encountered. His observations of animal mimicry (now known as Batesian Mimicry) further glued Darwin's theory of evolution, natural selection and adaptation.