RIO DE JANEIRO AND ITS ENVIRONS. 59 
May ~Lst. We celebrated May-day in a strange land, 
where May ushers in the winter, by driving to the Botanical 
Garden. When I say we, I mean usually the unprofessional 
members of the party. The scientific corps are too busily 
engaged to be with us on many of our little pleasure 
excursions. Mr. Agassiz himself is chiefly occupied in 
seeing numerous persons in official positions, whose influ- 
ence is important in matters relative to the expedition. 
He is very anxious to complete these necessary prelimi- 
naries, to despatch his various parties into the interior, and 
to begin his personal investigations. He is commended to 
be patient, however, and not to fret at delays ; for, with the 
best will in the world, the dilatory national habits cannot 
be changed. Meanwhile he has improvised a laboratory in 
a large empty room over a warehouse in the Rua Direita, 
the principal business street of the city. Here in one 
corner the ornithologists, Mr. Dexter and Mr. Allen, have 
their bench, a rough board propped on two casks, the 
seat an empty keg ; in another, Mr. Anthony, with an 
apparatus of much the same kind, pores over his shells ; 
a dissecting-table of like carpentry occupies a conspicuous 
position ; and in the midst the Professor may. generally be 
seen sitting on a barrel, for chairs there are none, assorting 
or examining specimens, or going from bench to bench to 
see how the work progresses. In. the midst of the confusion 
Mr. Burkhardt has his little table, where he is making 
colored drawings of the fish as they are brought in fresh 
from the fishing-boats. In a small adjoining room Mr. 
Sceva is preparing skeletons for mounting. Every one, in 
short, has his special task and is busily at work. A very 
questionable perfume, an " ancient and fish-like smell," 
strongly tinged with alcohol, guides one to this abode of 
