iS<>5-67.] OA r THE AMAZONS. 149 



The Amazonian Steamship Company placed a fine 

 steamer, furnished with everything needed by the whole 

 party, at Agassiz's disposition for one month, while 

 later a ship of war was sent up by order of the Emperor 

 for the use of Agassiz during the remainder of his stay 

 in the waters of the Amazons, to replace the Com- 

 pany's steamer, and wherever Agassiz arrived he found 

 that directions had been given to the local authorities 

 to furnish him with canoes, men, and whatever else he 

 might require for his scientific researches. 



The first station on the Amazons was Para, then 

 Manaos, Tabatinga, and Teffe. An excursion was made 

 on the Rio Negro as far as Pedreira, where the stones 

 in the bed of the river were so numerous and large, that 

 the channel was too dangerous for the war-steamer 

 Ibicuhy. 



To Agassiz, as well as to Bates, Wallace, and 

 Martins, the valley of the Amazons seemed the para- 

 dise of naturalists. His enthusiasm and admiration 

 of everything he met knew no bounds, while he busied 

 himself in collecting animals of all sorts, plants, more 

 especially all the palms and ethnological specimens, 

 and observed with his keen and searching eyes every- 

 thing from men to insects. He filled to its utmost 

 capacity with specimens the war-steamer, even the deck 

 being encumbered with trunks of palm trees. For him 

 the basin of the Amazons was a " fresh-water ocean," 

 with an archipelago of islands. The character of its 

 fauna is also oceanic, and its most noticeable feature is 

 the abundance of cetaceans through its whole extent. 



The health of. Agassiz during his stay on the Ama- 



