author

Arthur Nicols

A 19th-century Australian naturalist and geologist, he wrote lively books that mix firsthand adventure with close observation of animals, landscapes, and life in the bush. His work still feels vivid because it comes from experience as much as study.

1 Audiobook

The puzzle of life and how it has been put together : A short history of the formation of the earth, with its vegetable and animal life, from the earliest times, including an account of prehistoric man, his weapons, tools, and works

The puzzle of life and how it has been put together : A short history of the formation of the earth, with its vegetable and animal life, from the earliest times, including an account of prehistoric man, his weapons, tools, and works

by Arthur Nicols

About the author

Arthur Nicols was an Australian naturalist and geologist known for writing about the natural world in a clear, energetic way. Reliable catalog and reference sources link him to books including Wild Life and Adventure in the Australian Bush (1887), The Acclimatisation of the Salmonidae at the Antipodes (1882), and Snakes, Marsupials, and Birds (1888).

His writing often draws on direct experience in Australia. Wild Life and Adventure in the Australian Bush is presented as four years of personal experience, and later descriptions of his work emphasize his encounters with Australian wildlife and bush life. AustLit also describes him as a geologist and naturalist, and notes that he often corresponded with Charles Darwin.

Some basic biographical details about his life remain hard to confirm from the sources available here, so it is safest to remember him chiefly through his books: practical, curious works that brought natural history to general readers and recorded the excitement of observing Australia’s animals and environments firsthand.