ARTHUR ADAMS, the author, was born in Liverpool, England, the sixth child in a family of fourteen. Educated in one of the top Merseyside Grammar Schools, he spent the first years of his working life as a Purser in the British Merchant Navy. He came to Australia in 1967 and worked as a Public Service Officer in the New South Wales Police Department until he decided on an early retirement in 1990. He held senior positions in the Traffic Branch, the Public Relations Branch and as the Departments Accountant. He has also worked in various Police Stations in Sydney and other parts of the State....

This book gives an extensive account of 'the wonderful and mysterious forms of animal and vegetable life' encountered by Arthur Adams during the voyage of HMS Samarang in the years 1843 to 1846. Adams was the Assistant Surgeon on this expedition led by Captain Sir Edward Belcher which was charged with surveying Japan and South East Asia including, amongst others, the Islands of the Indian Archipelago and the China Seas. His beautifully descriptive personal observations combine with the formal identification of each species and sub-species to give a detailed vision of the natural history of...