The narrator of The Lost World, Edward D. Malone, describes him as being tall and thin, with peculiarly rounded shoulders, "dark gingery hair," skin which is "a rich flower-pot red from sun and wind" and cool, masterful blue eyes.
Malone compares him to Don Quixote and Napoleon III as well as to the quintessential English sporting gentleman.
Give me the great waste lands and the wide spaces, with a gun in my fist and somethin' to look for that's worth findin'.
The titular "lost world" is located on a remote South American plateau, accessed by using a felled tree as a bridge across a vast sheer drop.
The character was based on Conan Doyle's friend, the British Consul and Irish nationalist Roger Casement.