1865-67.] ARRJl'AL AT RIO JANEIRO. 145 



it he bent all his energy. Mr. Nathaniel Thayer, a 

 friend, and at the same time one of the richest men of 

 Boston, whom Agassiz had succeeded in enlisting as 

 treasurer of the board of trustees of the Museum of 

 Comparative Zoology, provided most liberally for six 

 assistants and all the expense of collecting and for- 

 warding the specimens to the Museum. 



Agassiz embarked at New York, on the 2d of April, 

 1865, and arrived at Rio Janeiro the 22d of the same 

 month. He was accompanied by his wife, Burkhardt 

 as artist, J. G. Anthony as conchologist, Frederick C. 

 Hartt and Orestes St. John as geologists, J. A. Allen 

 as ornithologist, and a preparator. Besides these, six 

 volunteer assistants, among them Mr. William James, 

 had joined the expedition. The journey lasted sixteen 

 months, ten of which were passed on the Amazons. 

 Two of the assistants, Anthony and Allen, were soon 

 compelled by poor health to leave for home. The 

 artist, Burkhardt, although a constant sufferer during 

 the whole trip, bravely continued his work until the 

 end, drawing living fishes in their natural colours. But 

 the exertion was too much for him ; and this faithful 

 companion of Agassiz returned home with such im- 

 paired health that after ten months of sickness at Cam- 

 bridge, he died in the house of Mrs. Pauline Shaw, nee 

 Agassiz, whose kind heart and grateful remembrance 

 of many kindnesses bestowed on her by Burkhardt 

 when a child and a young lady drew her to the sick- 

 bed of the old man, whence she took him in her car- 

 riage to her beautiful home in Jamaica Plain, where 

 Burkhardt breathed his last, after a few days of the 



VOL. II. L 



