The Naturalist on the River Amazons | Page 6

in one
locality a species under a certain form which is constant to all the
individuals concerned; in another exhibiting numerous varieties; and in
a third presenting itself as a constant form quite distinct from the one
we set out with. If we meet with any two of these modifications living
side by side, and maintaining their distinctive characters under such
circumstances, the proof of the natural origination of a species is
complete; it could not be much more so were we able to watch the
process step by step. It might be objected that the difference between
our two species is but slight, and that by classing them as varieties
nothing further would be proved by them. But the differences between
them are such as obtain between allied species generally. Large genera
are composed in great part of such species, and it is interesting to show
the great and beautiful diversity within a large genus as brought about
by the working of laws within our comprehension."
But to return to the Zoological wonders of the Upper Amazon, birds,
insects, and butterflies are all spoken of by Mr. Bates in his chapter on
the natural features of the district, and it is evident that none of these
classes of beings escaped the observation of his watchful intelligence.
The account of the foraging ants of the genus Eciton is certainly
marvellous, and would, even of itself, be sufficient to stamp the
recorder of their habits as a man of no ordinary mark.
The last chapter of Mr. Bates' work contains the account of his
excursions beyond Ega. Fonteboa, Tunantins--a small semi-Indian
settlement, 240 miles up the stream--and San Paulo de Olivenca, some
miles higher up, were the principal places visited, and new acquisitions
were gathered at each of these localities. In the fourth month of Mr.
Bates' residence at the last-named place, a severe attack of ague led to
the abandonment of the plans he had formed of proceeding to the
Peruvian towns of Pebas and Moyobamba, and "so completing the
examination of the Natural History of the Amazonian plains up to the
foot of the Andes." This attack, which seemed to be the culmination of
a gradual deterioration of health, caused by eleven years' hard work
under the tropics, induced him to return to Ega, and finally to Para,
where he embarked, on the 2nd June 1859, for England. Naturally
enough, Mr. Bates tells us he was at first a little dismayed at leaving the
equator, "where the well-balanced forces of Nature maintain a

land-surface and a climate typical of mind, and order and beauty," to
sail towards the "crepuscular skies" of the cold north. But he consoles
us by adding the remark that "three years' renewed experience of
England" have convinced him "how incomparably superior is civilised
life to the spiritual sterility of half-savage existence, even if it were
passed in the Garden of Eden."

The following is the list of H. W. Bates' published works:
Contributions to an insect Fauna of the Amazon Valley, Paper read
before the Linnean Society, June 21, 1861; The Naturalist on the
Amazons, a Record of Adventure, Habits of Animals, Sketches of
Brazilian and Indian Life . . . during Eleven Years of Travel, 1863; 3rd
Edition, 1873, with a Memoir of the author by E. Clodd to reprint of
unabridged edition, 1892.
Bates was for many years the editor of the Transactions of the Royal
Geographical Society; the following works were edited and revised, or
supplemented by him:--Mrs. Somerville's Physical Geography, 1870; A.
Humbert, Japan and the Japanese, 1874; C. Koldewey, the German
Arctic Expedition, 1874; P. E. Warburton, Journey across the Western
Interior of Australia, 1875; Cassell's Illustrated Travels, 6 vols.,
1869-1875; E. Whymper, Travels among the Great Andes of the
Equator (Introduction to Appendix volume), 1892, etc.; Central
America, the West Indies and South America; Stanford's Compendium
of Geography and Travel, 2nd revised Ed., 1882; he also added a list of
Coleoptera collected by J. S. Jameson on the Aruwini to the latter's
Story of the Rear Column of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, etc.,
1890; and an appendix to a catalogue of Phytophaga by H. Clark, 1866,
etc.; and contributed a biographical notice of Keith Johnson to J.
Thomson's Central African Lakes and Back, 1881.
He contributed largely to the Zoologist, Entomological Society's
journal, Annals and Magazine of Natural History, and Entomologist.
LIFE--Memoir by E. Clodd, 1892; short notice in Clodd's Pioneers of
Evolution, 1897.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE EDITION OF 1864
HAVING been urged to prepare a new edition of this work for a wider
circle than that contemplated in the former one, I have thought it
advisable to condense those portions which, treating of abstruse

scientific questions, presuppose a larger amount of Natural History
knowledge than an author