"The Naturalist on the River Amazons" was published in 1863 and catalogues a wondrous range of natural life in vivid description and detail. But Bates' book is much more than a scientist's log, his remarkable dedication to the challenges of exploration and his deep appreciation of the beauty and rhythms of the world of river and rainforest shine through in his writing. Although he finally confessed that 'the contemplation of Nature alone is not sufficient to fill the human heart', his record of the time 'he passed in the Garden of Eden' offers timely inspiration to our own age in its battle to preserve the planet's environments.
