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Biographical Notes on Henry Walter Bates, 

 F,R,S,, etc., etc. 



Henry Walter Bates was born at Leicester on February 

 8th, 1825, where his father was engaged in one of the staple 

 industries of the town. He was educated there, with a 

 view to commercial life ; and his school education was 

 supplemented by attending evening classes, where he ac- 

 quired his knowledge of classics and the rudiments of 

 modern languages. But his taste for Natural History soon 

 predominated, and in 1843-1844, several notes by him on 

 British Coleoptera were published in the Zoologist. In 

 1845 ne ma de the acquaintance ot Mr. A. R. Wallace, who 

 was then engaged as a tutor in Leicester, and this ac- 

 quaintanceship proved fraught with events concerning his 

 future career. 



In April, 1848, the two friends embarked in a ship for 

 Para. At that time there were no steamers plying between 

 England and South America, and it was really a voyage 

 that Messrs. Bates and Wallace had undertaken. They 

 were the only two passengers. They arrived at their 

 destination many weeks after, suffering more or less with bad 

 weather during their voyage. They remained for some 

 months at Para, at the mouth of the Amazons, a place 

 rather insalubrious. They soon had to contend with 

 sickness. Bates was attacked by yellow fever, but 

 happily recovered ; but during all his life he suffered 

 more or less from the consequences of this terrible disease. 

 Wallace lost his brother from the same plague. The two 

 explorers separated shortly after. Wallace went and 

 explored the Rio Negro, where he made some important 

 discoveries, and Bates went up the main stream of the 

 Amazons, exploring carefully all the places which he visited, 

 on the shores of this mighty river. He spent il years on 

 the Amazons, ascending up to a point over the Peruvian 



