i2o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



an expedition was made up the Chipari, a branch river which 

 enters the Tapajos about eight miles above it. At this time Bates 

 was thrown in contact with the Mundurucus Indians, and was 

 able to acquire much valuable ethnological information. It was 

 also during this second jonrney that the long stay was made at 

 Ega, and the many excursions in its neighborhood resulted in 

 so much general knowledge, both zoological and geographical- 

 Bates returned again to Para on the 17th of March, 1859, after an 

 interval of seven and a half years in the interior. During this 

 long sojourn in the tropics Mr. Bates obtained more than 14,700 

 species of animals, of which 14,000 were insects, and of these 8,000 

 were new to science. 



After they had been two years together in South America, 

 Mr. Wallace separated from Bates, to visit the Rio Negro and the 

 upper waters of the Orinoco, whence he subsequently went to the 

 Malay Archipelago. 



Mr. Bates sent contributions to The Zoologist from time to 

 time during the whole of the eleven years which he spent in the 

 Amazonian regions. One of his letters gives a curious picture of 

 him as equipped for a day's expedition, in colored shirt, trousers, 

 boots, and old hat ; his double-barreled gun over his shoulder, 

 loaded with two kinds of shot ; his net in his right hand, while 

 " on my left side is suspended a leathern bag with two pouches, 

 one for my insect-box, the other for powder and two sorts of shot ; 

 on my right side hangs my 'game-bag,' an ornamental affair, 

 with red leather trappings and things to hang lizards, snakes, 

 frogs, or large birds ; one small pocket in this bag contains my 

 caps, another papers for wrapping up the delicate birds ; others for 

 wads, cotton, box of powdered plaister, and a box with damped 

 cork for the micro-lepidoptera ; to my shirt is pinned my pin- 

 cushion, with six sizes of pins." 



The summary of the adventures and results of his voyage is 

 given in the Naturalist on the Amazons, " one of the most de- 

 lightful books of travel ever perused, full of varied information 

 charmingly arrayed," which, prepared after the persistent urgency 

 of Darwin, was published in 1863. This was Mr. Bates's only book. 



His most memorable contribution to biological science was a 

 paper published in the Transactions of the Linnrean Society, en- 

 titled Contributions to an Insect Fauna of the Amazon Valley, in 

 which the phenomenon of mimicry was unfolded and explained as 

 a means of protecting animals — by giving them guises tending to 

 ward off pursuit by enemies, or by so likening them to surround- 

 ing objects that they escape notice. Darwin spoke of the book as 

 one of the most remarkable that he ever read, and " as clearly 

 stating and solving a wonderful problem," and found in it a 

 strong support of his theory of natural selection. 



