The Malay Archipelago: the land of the orang-utan and the bird of paradise: a narrative of travel with studies of man and nature

London: Macmillan and Co., 1906. xvii, [3], 515pp, [1]. With an engraved frontispiece and numerous engraved illustrations in the text. Original publisher's green cloth, ruled and lettered in gilt. Extremities rubbed, cocked. Internally clean and crisp. The Malay Archipelago recounts the expedition of British naturalist, colleague of Charles Darwin, and fellow proponent of evolution, Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) in the southern territories of Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. Chronicling Wallace's eight-year scientific exploration of the East Indies, from 1854 to 1862, the work provides detailed accounts of the geography, floral and fauna of the region - indeed the preface relates that 14,000 miles were traversed and 125,660 specimens of natural history collected. It is from these travels that the explorer identified what would be known as the Wallace Line, a division separating the fauna of the archipelago into two distinct parts; the western half where the animals were of Asian origin, and the eastern where the species are of Australasian descent. This biogeographical research led Wallace to conclude that his theories as to the evolution of species by natural selection, made independently of Darwin, were accurate. . 8vo.