WCP4428

[1]

Broadstone, Wimborne

Oct[obe]^r. 12^th. 1906

Prof. E.B. Poulton

My dear Poulton

I have just had a letter from Mr. Kaye, in which he says, that his whole experience in British Guiana, together with the result of the collections made for him there, is, that there is a general "poverty of insect life" (as compared with Amazon Valley) & that owing to that, & the few new sp[ecies] to be got and ^the low prices, he does not think a collector can make a living there!

As this seems to be the general [2] opinion of all the large buyers, I shall advise Birch to give up the idea [letter crossed out] & instead, go right up to Iquitos at once, from Liverpool — which will cost him very little if any more, & he will be there in the centre of one of the richest known regions; & if he finds it unhealthy, can go thence to Tarapoto on the Huallagaja¹, which my friend D^r. Spruce, who lived there 2 years, always spoke of as the healthiest & most pleasant place he met with in all [3] S[outh] America between the Atlantic & Pacific.

Can you ascertain if any insect collector has been at either of these two places, & the result? Or if any one a entomologist has ever visited them even for a week or two.

Kaye’s account of every place in Guiana out of Georgetown is also very depressing, as far as society is concerned.

Yours very truly| Alfred R. Wallace [signature]