891 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 



The Naturalist on the River Amazons : a Record of Adventures, 

 Habits of Animals, Sketches of Brazilian and Indian Life, and 

 Aspects of Nature under the Equator, during Eleven Years of 

 Travel. By Henry Walter Bates. 2 vols. 8vo. London : 

 John Murray, 1863. 



Penned with a homely simphcity which almost seems studied, and 

 owing certainly no charms to what is called " word-painting," the 

 record of Mr. Bates's long sojourn in South America is perhaps one 

 of the most important works of its kind that has ever appeared. In 

 these days it is somewhat of a relief to come across a book honestly 

 written, without any attempt on the part of its author to produce a 

 "sensation." If we were disposed to find fault with these volumes, 

 we should say that Mr. Bates, by sinking his own individuality too 

 much, has failed to make them as interesting as they might have 

 been. There are few of those touches in them which show that a natu- 

 ralist, after all, may be as other men are. The world gives the class 

 credit for having eyes — albeit, as it appears in the present case from 

 some of the illustrations, they require the aid of spectacles ; but the 

 enjoyment of other "organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions," 

 seems to be sometimes denied to the fraternity, as Shylock imagined it 

 was to his kindred. Consequently this book, it must be confessed, has a 

 certain dryness about it. Still the mellifluous phrases of a Macaulay 

 or the glowing periods of a Gibbon do not of themselves constitute 

 history ; and, in the interests of science, there is no need to quarrel 

 with Mr. Bates because to him has not been vouchsafed the classic 

 grace of a Gilbert White, the poetic fancy of an Alexander Wilson, 

 or the fiery ardour of a Charles Waterton. 



The name of Mr. Bates, from his frequent and valuable contribu- 

 tions to our pages, must be so well known to our readers that it is 

 unnecessary for us to say a word by way of introduction. Through- 

 out the protracted period of voluntary exile which he has endured, 

 he has been so unremitting in his consignment of zoological speci- 

 mens to his agent in London, that there can be but few collections of 

 importance, in any branch of the animal kingdom, which his labours 

 have not served to enrich. Yet, knowing all this, we confess at 

 having been utterly astonished at the tabulated results of his eleven 

 years' wanderings. In his preface, Mr. Bates gives the following as 

 an approximate enumeration of the total number of species which he 

 obtained : — 



" Mammals 52 



Birds 360 



Reptiles 140 



Fishes 120 



Insects 14,000 



Mollusks 35 



Zoophytes '...... 5 



14,712,'? 



