CEARA. 447 
is very sickly. Yellow-fever is prevalent, and there have 
been a good many deaths from it recently, though it is 
said not to have assumed the character of an epidemic 
as yet. Still more fatal is the malignant dysentery, which 
has been raging both in town and country for the last 
two months. 
We are trying to hasten the arrangements for our inland 
journey, but do not find it very easy. Mr. Agassiz's object 
in stopping here is to satisfy himself by direct investigation 
of the former existence of glaciers in the serras of this 
province, and, if possible, to find some traces of the south- 
ern lateral moraine, marking the limit of the mass of ice 
which he supposes to have filled the Amazonian basin in 
the glacial period. In the Amazonian Valley itself he has 
seen that all the geological phenomena are connected with 
the close of the glacial period, with the melting of the 
ice and the immense freshets consequent upon its disap- 
pearance. On leaving the Amazons, the next step in the 
investigation was to seek the masses of loose materials 
left by the glacier itself. On arriving here he at once 
made inquiries to this effect, from a number of persons 
who have travelled a great deal in the province, and are 
therefore familiar with its features. The most valuable 
information he has obtained, valuable from the fact, 
that the precision with which it is given shows that it 
may be relied upon,- -is from Dr. Felice. His occupa- 
tion as land-surveyor has led him to travel a great deal 
in the region of the Serra Grande. He has made a valu- 
able map of this portion of the province, and he tells Mr. 
Agassiz that there is a wall of loose materials, boulders, 
stones, &c., running from east to west for a distance of 
some sixty leagues from the Rio Aracaty-Assu to Bom Jesu, 
