Darwin & Wallace as Geologist, and more.

The soft cover book “Where Australia Collides with Asia- The epic voyages of Joseph Banks, Charles Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace and the Origin of On the Origin of Species” by Ian Burnet was purchased from Periplus in Yogya This 200-page book, with magnificent pictures & sketches draws heavily upon the published & archived personal diaries of those men and their associates.

A major purpose of such voyages was for the collecting of rare beetles, butterflies and animals for British collectors [19th Century]. At this time the church dominated the concept that the earth & man were created by God. But Darwin and Wallace built upon the evolving concepts in geology that the earth was much older and not fixed. Darwin (a geologist) witnessed erupting volcanoes and experienced tsunamis that showed him that the earth was still evolving, and found fossil seashells high in the S. American Andes that implied long periods for uplifting. Wallace recognized each species had a distinct boundary of population. Wallace also read broadly, including key geology texts. He realized that the different collection of species between Asia and Australia meant that their evolutionary history involved separate continents dividing and coming together.

There are several books that tell the biological and geological story of these three great explorers, and of their publications, debates and the realization that geology and biology are intertwined. Banks, Charles & Wallace were young men on great worldly adventures. This book brings out the physical and mental dangers of these many year voyages in small sailing ships. Walace was rescued from a sunken ship mid Atlantic, suffered from malaria, caught up in tsunamis, stranded for months on remote eastern Indonesian islands and more.

This is an easy read.