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.