The Travelling Naturalists

They were amateurs with a taste for the unknown and the ability to cope with the unexpected. Brave, tough, determined, on returning home they lectured and wrote detailed and lively accounts of their journeys. Zoologist Lloyd profiles British travelers whose contribution of specimens and first-hand knowledge solidified natural history into science during the 19th century. One delightful eccentric, Charles Waterton, explored in northern South America; he developed a method of preserving specimens and is regarded as the ""father'' of modern taxidermy. Howard Saunders crossed the Andes collecting birds, and Henry Seebohm did likewise in Siberia. Mary Kingsley collected fish and studied tribal customs in West Africa; William Green explored the mountains of New Zealand and British Columbia. Two more familiar names round out Lloyd's engrossing storiesJohn Hanning Speke (East Africa, the Nile) and Henry W. Bates (the Amazon). It is all very satisfying, whether read for travel, adventure or the history of science. Illustrated. December 27