Wallace the father of biogeography

THE anniversary of a great Welsh naturalist looms; Alfred Russel Wallace died on Nov 7, 1913. The ‘father of biogeography’, independently of Darwin, hit on the Principle of Natural Selection and discovered the ‘line’ through Southeast Asia which bears his name.

Born in Monmouthshire in 1823, the fifth child of downwardly mobile middle class parents, Wallace left school at 14. Working as a builder’s surveyor in London, he studied at the ‘Hall of Science’ off Tottenham Court Road and visited the zoo. In 1848, he embarked on a specimen collecting trip to the Amazon basin. Four years later, he boarded a ship, the Helen, bound for London.

Twenty-four days into the voyage, the Helen’s cargo caught fire and Wallace’s collection of specimens was lost. He saved only part of his diary and a few sketches. A parrot also survived. After ten days in an open boat, Wallace and his companions were rescued but their ordeal wasn’t over. With insufficient food for the extra people on board, they had to eat rats and lick the fat off cooking pots. The rescuing ship almost sank in a gale.