1 5-: LOUIS AGASSIZ. i \i. xx. 



in finding the glacial phenomena as legible as in any of 

 the valleys of Maine, or even the Cumberland Moun- 

 tains of England, with medial, lateral, and frontal 

 moraines, at a level of only eight hundred feet above 

 the sea in latitude four degrees south. 



The roads in Ceara, during the rainy season, are 

 so bad that the only way to travel is on horseback. 

 This was the only time that Agassiz ever rode, and it 

 was so trying and disagreeable to him, that he made 

 most of the journey, especially the mountain scramble, 

 on foot, notwithstanding the mud and the consequent 

 pitching, tumbling, and sliding. He never repeated 

 the experience, and nothing could have induced him then 

 to mount a horse but his great desire to see moraines 

 under the tropics. 



By the end of April Agassiz was back again at Rio 

 Janeiro. During the month of May he delivered at 

 the Collegio de Pedro II, a series of six lectures, which 

 was attended by the Mite of society, ladies as well as 

 gentlemen. It seems that before Agassiz came to 

 Brazil ladies did not make their appearance at public 

 lectures. It was certainly a progress in Brazilian cus- 

 toms that senhoras were allowed to follow a course of 

 lectures, and Agassiz was much pleased with the sym- 

 pathetic reception given by his Brazilian audiences. 

 The lectures, delivered in French, were stenographi- 

 cally reported, were then translated into Portuguese by 

 the French naturalist, M. Felix Vogeli, and published 

 under his direction at Rio, bearing the title, " Con- 

 versa9oes Scientificas sobre o Amazonas," and had a 

 large circulation. 



