Naturalists in Paradise: Wallace, Bates and Spruce in the Amazon

The thrilling stories of the three pioneering English naturalists’ explorations and discoveries in the world’s richest ecosystem

One hundred and fifty years ago, the young naturalists Alfred Wallace, Henry Walter Bates, and Richard Spruce were on a journey. Their destination, Amazonia—the world’s largest tropical forest with the greatest river system and richest ecosystem—was then an almost-undiscovered environment to Western explorers and scientists.

In Naturalists in Paradise, Amazon expert...