2 volumes, 8vo. Half-titles, 2 frontispieces, 9 maps (2 folding), 6 plates, numerous illustrations, 2pp. and 52pp. publisher's ads at end of vol. I dated December 1868. Original green cloth, gilt orangutans on upper covers, spines lettered in gilt and with birds of paradise stamped near ends (spines lightly darkened, vol. I spine slightly leaned, hinges starting in vol. I, some rubbing to extremities).

FIRST EDITION of "one of the nineteenth century's best scientific travel books" (Smith). "On the basis of artistic format, literary style, and scientific merit, it is clearly one of the finest scientific travel books ever written" (DSB). During his travels in the East Indies from 1854-1862, Wallace formulated the principle of natural selection which was outlined in a letter to Charles Darwin in 1858, prompting the author to hasten in publishing On the Origin of Species. Norman 2176; Smith S715.