PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS OF RIO DE JANEIRO 467 
Captain Taylor sent his boat at once to our steamer, and 
we were soon on his deck, received so cordially by him and 

his officers, and by a party of American friends who were 
making a visit to his ship, that it seemed like an anticipa- 
tion of our arrival at home. There is nothing so pleasant 
as an unexpected meeting with one's own fellow-citizens on 
coming into a foreign port, and this was a delightful sur- 
prise to us. 
We are again in our old quarters in the Rua Direita, 
and, except that our fellow-travellers are all scattered, it 
would seem as if we had stepped back a year. Since our 
return, Mr. Agassiz has been arranging and despatching to 
the United States the numerous specimens which have been 
sent in during our absence. Among them is the large and 
very complete collection made for him by the Emperor last 
summer, when in command of the army at the South. It 
contains fishes from several of the southern fresh-water 
basins, and includes a great number of new species. Taken 
in connection with the Amazonian collections and those 
from the interior, it affords material for an extensive com- 
parison of the faunae of the southern and northern fresh- 
waters in Brazil. 
Our excursions since our return have been only in the 
neighborhood of the city to Petropolis and the Dom Pedro 
Railroad. We are surprised, on returning to this road 
while our Amazonian impressions are fresh in our minds, 
to find that the vegetation, the richness of which amazed us 
when we first arrived in Brazil, looks almost meagre in com- 
parison to that with which we have since been familiar. It 
is dwarfed, to our eye, by the still more luxuriant growth 
of the north. 
Yesterday was Mr. Agassiz's birthday, again made very 
