80 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



on the monkeys, birds, and reptiles of Brazil, 

 the animals being drawn and colored, chiefly 

 life-size, by able artists. It had been his in- 

 tention to give a complete natural history of 

 Brazil, but to the sorrow of all naturalists 

 he died in 1826. M. Martius, desirous to see 

 the completion of the work which his travel- 

 ing companion had begun, engaged a profes- 

 sor from Erlangen to publish the shells, and 

 these appeared last year. When I came to 

 Munich there remained only the fishes and 

 insects, and M. Martius, who had learned 

 something about me from the professors to 

 whom I was known, found me worthy to con- 

 tinue the work of Spix, and asked me to 

 carry on the natural history of the fishes. 

 I hesitated for a long time to accept this 

 honorable offer, fearing that the occupation 

 might withdraw me too much from my stud- 

 ies ; but, on the other hand, the opportunity 

 for laying the foundation of a reputation 

 by a large undertaking seemed too favor- 

 able to be refused. The first volume is al- 

 ready finished, and the printing was begun 

 some weeks ago. You can imagine the pleas- 

 ure I should have had in sending it to our 

 dear father and mother before they had 

 heard one word about it, or knew even of 



