640 LOUIS AGASSIZ. 



with an unexpected success. Spix and Mar- 

 tius, for whose journey I wrote, as you doubt- 

 less remember, my first work on fishes, brought 

 back from there some fifty species, and the 

 sum total known now, taking the results of all 

 the travelers who have followed up the in- 

 quiry, does not amount to two hundred. I 

 had hoped, in making fishes the special object 

 of my researches, to add perhaps a hundred 

 more. You will understand my surprise when 

 I rapidly obtained five or six hundred, and 

 finally, on leaving Para, brought away nearly 

 two thousand, that is to say, ten times more 

 than were known when I began my journey. 1 

 A great part of this success is due to the un- 

 usual facilities granted me by the Brazilian 

 government. . . . To the Emperor of Brazil 

 I owe the warmest gratitude. His kindness 

 to me has been beyond all bounds. . . . He 

 even made for me, while he was with the army 

 last summer, a collection of fishes from the 



1 This estimate was made in the field when close compari- 

 son of specimens from distant localities was out of the ques- 

 tion. The whole collection has never been worked up, and 

 it is possible that the number of new species it contains, 

 though undoubtedly greatly in excess of those previously 

 known from the Amazons, may prove to be less than was 

 at first supposed. ED. 



