The Malay Archipelago, Volume II

Book excerpt: This early work by Alfred Russel Wallace was originally published in 1869 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introductory biography. This book is the second of two volumes. The Malay Archipelago is an important account of Wallace's journey to the Malay Archipelago (now Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia). During this eight year period he collected more than 126,000 specimens, several thousand of which represented new species to science. While travelling, Wallace refined his thoughts about evolution and in 1858 he outlined his theory of natural selection in an article he sent to Charles Darwin. This was published in the same year along with Darwin's own theory. The Malay Archipelago became one of the most popular books of scientific exploration in the 19th century.