A Naturalist's Sojourn in Jamaica

A diary of eighteen months spent in Jamaica observing the wildlife there by an acclaimed English naturalist, published in 1851.

Philip Henry Gosse (1810–88) was an English naturalist who left for Jamaica in 1844. Upon his return eighteen months later, he wrote this account of the wildlife he observed there, which was published in 1851. His vivid descriptions and lively style won him a large popular audience.The English naturalist Philip Henry Gosse (1810–88) travelled to Jamaica in 1844 and stayed for eighteen months to observe the diverse wildlife there. Upon his return he described his findings in a trilogy of books. The first two examined the island's birds - he has been hailed as the 'father of Jamaican ornithology' - but he used the present work, first published in 1851, to describe all the other forms of life on the island, from beetles to fruit trees. Lamenting that natural history was too often presented as a 'science of dead things', Gosse made his investigations come alive in this work by writing it in a diary form, discussing what he encountered as his journey progressed, and providing a number of illustrations. His lively and engaging style won him a wide audience, and this work remains an important early example of popular natural history.