Russel Alfred Wallace (1823-1913) was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, and biologist. He is best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural selection. His paper on the subject was jointly published with Charles Darwin and included some of Darwin's writings. This inspired Darwin to publish his own ideas in "On The Origin Of Species." Although the essence of the ideas put forth by the two men is the same, there are key differences. Darwin emphasized competition between individuals of the same species to survive and reproduce, wheras Wallace emphasized environmental pressures on varieties and species forcing them to become adapted to their local conditions, leading to populations in different locations to diverge. Rather than have a bitter academic rivalry as some might suspect, the two men openly communicated their ideas and inspired each other. Wallace spent much of his time on far flung islads of the Pacific collecting samples, while Darwin used his name recognition to make the ideas reach a wide audience. After returning to England, Wallace was one of the staunchest defenders of "On The Origin Of Species." Both Darwin and Wallace remained good friends for the rest of their lives.
The cache: Please note the terrain rating. Try not to go swimming unless you want to. It might be wise to not try this one in the winter, but try telling that to a geocacher. :-)
Thanks to GeoScout717 for the handcrafted container.
Congratulations to mwein for FTF!