LIFE AT MANAOS. 195 
connaitre les ressources de la f6ret et mieux encore en 
me fournissant les moyens d'en tirer parti. Merci, mille 
fois, merci. Je dois aussi tenir grand compte de 1'as- 
sistance que m'ont fournie les agents de la compagnie 
sur tons les points ou nous avons touche. Notre aimable 
commandant s'est egalement e'vertue', et pendant que j'ex- 
plorais les lacs des environs de Villa Bella il a fait lui- 
meme une tres belle collection dans 1'Amazone meme, 
ou il a recueilli de nombreuses petites especes quo les 
pecheurs negligent toujours. A I'arrive'e du Belem, j'ai 
regu votre aimable lettre et une partie de 1'alcohol que 
j'avais demande a M. Bond. Je lui e*cris aujourd'hui 
pour qu'il m'en envoie encore une partie a Teffe et plus tard 
davantage a Manaos. Je vous remercie pour le catalogue 
des poissons du Para ; je YOUS le restituerai a notre retour, 
avec les additions que je ferai pendant le reste du voyage. 
Adieu, mon cher ami. 
Tout a vous, 
L. AGASSIZ.* 
* Senahor Pimento, Bueno. 
MY DEAR FRIEND : You will probably be surprised to receive only a 
few lines from me after the time which has elapsed since my last letter. 
The truth is, that, since Obydos, I have passed from surprise to surprise, 
and that I have scarcely had time to take care of the collections we have 
made, without being able to study them properly. Thus, during the week 
we spent in the environs of Villa Bella, at Lago Jose Assii and Lago Maximo, 
we have collected one hundred and eighty species of fishes, two thirds of which, 
at least, are new, while those of my companions who remained at Santarem and 
upon the Tapajoz have brought back some fifty more, making already more 
than three hundred species, including those of Porto do Moz, of Gurupa, of 
Tajapurii, and of Monte Ale'gre. You see that before having ascended the 
Amazons for one third of its course, the number of fishes is more than triple 
that of all the species known thus far, and I begin to perceive that we shall not 
do more than skim over the surface of the centre of this great basin. What 
will it be when it becomes possible to study all its affluents at leisure and in the 
