94 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 
information for the separate journeys.* Yet with the best 
will in the world the Brazilians know comparatively little 
of the interior of their own country. It is necessary to 
collect all that is known from a variety of sources, and then 
to combine it as well as may be, so as to form an organized 
] tin n. Even then a great deal must be left to be decided in 
accordance with circumstances which no one can foresee. 
No pains have been spared to anticipate all the probable 
difficulties, and to provide for them as far as it is humanly 
possible to do so ; and we feel that this journey, a part 
of which has been made by very few persons before, has 
never been undertaken under better auspices. This party 
will explore the upper course of the Rio T)oce, the Rio 
das Yelhas, and the San Francisco, with the lower course 
of the Tocantins and its tributaries, as far as they can ; 
making also collections of fossils in certain regions upon 
the route. Another party, starting at about the same time, 
is to keep nearer the coast, exploring the lower course of 
the Rio Doce and the San Francisco. Mr. Agassiz thus 
hopes to make at least a partial survey of this great water 
system, while he himself undertakes the Amazons and its 
tributaries.! In the mean time, the result of the weeks 
lie has been obliged to spend in Rio, while organizing the 
work of these parties and making the practical arrange- 
ments for its prosecution, has been very satisfactory. The 
collections are large, and will give a tolerably complete 
idea of the fauna of this province, as well as a part of 
* A short account of these explorations may be found at the end of the 
* 
volume L. A. 
t I am particularly indebted to Senator Th. Ottoni, Baron do Prados, 
Senator Pompeo, Senator Paranagua, Senhor Paula Sonza, and Senhor J. B. 
da Fonseca, for information, maps, and other documents relative to the regions 
intended to be explored by my young friends and myself. L. A. 
