146 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 



expedition. I dwell upon these things and recur to them 

 often, not in any spirit of egotism, but because it is due 

 to the character of the people from whom they come to 

 make the fullest acknowledgment of their generosity. 



While Mr. Agassiz has been busy with the zoological 

 collections, Major Coutinho has been no less so in making 

 geological, meteorological, and hydrographic investigations. 

 His regular co-operation is invaluable, and Mr. Agassiz 

 blesses the day when their chance meeting at the Palace 

 suggested the idea of his joining the expedition. Not 

 only his scientific attainments, but his knowledge of the 

 Indian language (lingua geral)^ and his familiarity with 

 the people, make him a most important coadjutor. With 

 his aid Mr. Agassiz has already opened a sort of scien- 

 tific log-book, in which, by the side of the scientific name 

 of every specimen entered by the Professor, Major Cou- 

 tinho records its popular local name, obtained from the 

 Indians, with all they can tell of its haunts and habits. 



I have said nothing of Mr. Agassiz' s observations on the 

 character of the soil since we left Rio, thinking it best 

 to give them as a whole. Along the entire length of the 

 coast he has followed the drift, examining it carefully at 

 every station. At Bahia it contained fewer large boulders 

 than in Rio, but was full of small pebbles, and rested 

 upon undecomposed stratified rock. At Maceio, the cap- 

 ital of the province of Alagoas, it was the same, but 

 resting upon decomposed rock, as at Tijuca. Below this 

 was a bed of stratified clay, containing small pebbles. 

 In Pernambuco, on our drive to the great aqueduct, we 

 followed it for the whole way ; the same red clayey ho- 

 mogeneous paste, resting there on decomposed rock. The 

 line of contact at Monteiro, the aqueduct station, was very 



