146 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 
expedition. I dwell upon these things \nd recur to them 
often, not in any spirit of egotism, but because it is due 
to the character of the people from whom they come to 
make the fullest acknowledgment of their generosity. 
While Mr. Aa;assiz has been busy with the zoological 
v O 
collections, Major Coutinho has been no less so in making 
geological, meteorological, and hydrographic investigations. 
His regular co-operation is invaluable, and Mr. Agassiz 
blesses the day when their chance meeting at the Palace 
suggested the idea of his joining the expedition. Not 
only his scientific attainments, but his knowledge of the 
Indian language (lingua geraT), and his familiarity with 
the people, make him a most important coadjutor. With 
his aid Mr. Agassiz has already opened a sort of scien- 
tific log-book, in which, by the side of the scientific name 
of every specimen entered by the Professor, Major Cou- 
tinho records its popular local name, obtained from the 
Indians, with all they can tell of its haunts and habits. 
I have said nothing of Mr. Agassiz's observations on the 
character of the soil since we left Rio, thinking it best 
to give them as a whole. Along the entire length of the 
coast he has followed the drift, examining it carefully at 
every station. At Bahia it contained fewer large boulders 
than in Rio, but was full of small pebbles, and rested 
iipon undecomposed -stratified rock. At Maceio, the cap- 
ital of the province of Alagoas, it was the same, but 
resting upon decomposed rock, as at Tijuca. Below this 
was a bed of stratified clay, containing small pebbles. 
In Pernambuco, on our drive to the great aqueduct, we 
followed it for the whole way ; the same red clayey ho- 
mogeneous paste, resting there on decomposed rock. The 
if 
line of contact at Monteiro, the aqueduct station, was very 
