Marchant, James / 2008-07-29 00:00:00


Somewhere about the autumn of 1847, Bates paid a visit to Wallace at
Neath, and the plan to go to the Amazon which had been slowly forming
itself at length took shape, due to the perusal of a little book
entitled "A Voyage up the River Amazon," by W.H. Edwards. Further
investigations showed that this would be particularly advantageous, as
the district had only been explored by the German zoologist, von Spix,
and the botanist von Martins, in 1817-20, and subsequently by Count de
Castelnau.
During this interval we find, in a letter to Bates, the following
allusion to Darwin, which is the first record of Wallace's high estimate
of the man with whom his own name was to be dramatically associated ten
years later. "I first," he says, "read Darwin's Journal three or four
years ago, and have lately re-read it. As the journal of a scientific
traveller it is second only to Humboldt's Narrative; as a work of
general interest, perhaps superior to it. He is an ardent admirer and
most able supporter of Mr. Lyell's views. His style of writing I very
much admire, so free from all labour, or egotism, yet so full of
interest and original thought.
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