Bates, H. W. to Darwin, C. R.
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Sends CD ch. 2 of his book [The naturalist on the river Amazons] for suggestions, having accepted CD's recommendations concerning ch. 1.
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Effects of climate on dress in ch. 1 similar to, but independent of, notions expressed by CD in his Journal of researches [p. 381].
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On geology, book deals with distribution and theory of deltas of the Amazon.
Summary Add
Transcription
King St Leicester
6 Jan
My Dear Sir
I have now finished the rough draught of 5 chapters of my book & send
you by this post the 2
Your suggestions on 1
< > loose statement of the rocks being cretacean is der<ived>
from M
As to explaining the ``We'' <you>r remark shows me that there must
<be so>mething very abrupt & unsatisfactory in my commencement! I
will add a straight forward preface <e>xplaining the object of journey of
M
Please criticize this 2
Yours sincerely | H W Bates
C. Darwin esq.
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- f1 3377.f1
Bates was writing an account of his travels in the Amazon region, undertaken between 1848 and 1859. CD had encouraged Bates to publish an account and had offered to read the `1st Chapter or two' of the manuscript; he repeated his offer to read a second chapter after reading the first in December 1861 (see Correspondence vol. 9, letters to H. W. Bates, 4 April [1861], 25 September [1861], 3 December [1861], and 15 December [1861]). The naturalist on the River Amazons was published in 1863. - +
- f2 3377.f2
Having read the first manuscript chapter of Bates 1863, CD made suggestions as to how it might be improved (see Correspondence vol. 9, letter to H. W. Bates, 15 December [1861]). His main point was that Bates should give the vernacular as well as the scientific names of any British animals mentioned. - +
- f3 3377.f3
Bates's younger brother, Frederick, had been a keen entomologist since childhood. Their father, Henry Bates, was a hosiery manufacturer in Leicester. - +
- f4 3377.f4
CD suggested that Bates place his historical description of the town of Pará, Brazil, at the end of the first chapter (see Correspondence vol. 9, letter to H. W. Bates, 15 December [1861]). - +
- f5 3377.f5
See Correspondence vol. 9, letter to H. W. Bates, 15 December [1861] and n. 2. In his first chapter, Bates argued against the widespread belief that the birds and insects of the tropics were generally larger and more beautiful than those in temperate zones. From this, and from the fact that it is usually only the males of a species that display `brilliant dress', he concluded that, contrary to popular opinion, climate had `little or no direct influence in the matter' (Bates 1863, 1: 18--23). - +
- f6 3377.f6
Bates refers to the second edition of Journal of researches, which was issued as part of John Murray's Colonial and Home Library series. The passage Bates cites (p. 381) discusses the generally dull coloration of the birds, plants, and insects of the Galápagos islands compared with the brilliantly coloured products of other equatorial regions. CD concluded that:the usual gaudy colouring of the intertropical productions, is not related either to the heat or light of those zones, but to some other cause, perhaps to the conditions of existence being generally favourable to life. - +
- f7 3377.f7
Bates referred to CD's conclusions (see n. 6, above) in Bates 1863, 1: 21. - +
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CD had remarked in his letter to H. W. Bates, 15 December [1861] (Correspondence vol. 9) that without good evidence Bates should avoid identifying rocks as `Cretaceous'. In Wallace 1853, pp. 420--1, Alfred Russel Wallace discussed his difficulties in elucidating the geology of the Amazon valley, stating: `It is remarkable that I was never able to find any fossil remains whatever … We are thus unable to assign the geological age to which any of the various beds of rock belong'. Later in the text, however, Wallace stated (p. 425): `The neighbourhood of Pará consists entirely of a coarse iron sandstone, which is probably a continuation of the rocks observed by Mr. Gardner at Maranham and in the Province of Piauhy, and which he considered to belong to the chalk formation'. - +
- f9 3377.f9
See Correspondence vol. 9, letter to H. W. Bates, 15 December [1861]. Bates explained in a preface to The naturalist on the River Amazons (Bates 1863, 1: iii--vi) that the expedition to the river had begun as a joint undertaking with Wallace, `for the purpose of exploring the Natural History of its banks'. They had intended, he continued, to `gather facts, as Mr. Wallace expressed it …, ``towards solving the problem of the origin of species,'' a subject on which we had conversed and corresponded much together.' - +
- f10 3377.f10
Bates contrasted his positive response to the sense of the `vastness of nature' and the `insignificance' of man, induced by the enormous animal and plant diversity of the tropical forest, with the experience of the German zoologist Karl Hermann Konrad Burmeister, who found the `restless selfishness' of the forest vegetation painful (Bates 1863, 1: 53). Bates gave no citation, but the reference is probably to Burmeister 1853, p. 127.