294 A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 



lighted balloon at a later hour, and so on. But whenever 

 we have been present at public festivities in Brazil, and 

 our observation is confirmed by other foreigners, we have 

 been struck with the want of gayety, the absence of merri- 

 ment. There is a kind of lack-lustre character in their 

 fetes, so far as any demonstration of enjoyment is con- 

 cerned. Perhaps it is owing to their enervating climate, 

 but the Brazilians do not seem to work or play with a 

 will. They have not the activity which, while it makes 

 life a restless fever with our people, gives it interest also ; 

 neither have they the love of amusement of the continental 

 Europeans. 



December 6th. Manaos. Mr. Thayer returned to-day 

 from Lake Alexo, bringing a valuable collection of fish, 

 obtained with some difficulty on account of the height of 

 water ; it is rapidly rising now, and the fish are in conse- 

 quence daily scattered over a wider space. This addition 

 with the collections brought in by Mr. Bourget and Mr. 

 Thayer from Cudajas, by Mr. James from Manacapuru, 

 and by Major Coutinho from Lake Hyanuary, Jose-Fer- 

 nandez, Curupira, &c., &c., brings the number of Ama- 

 zonian species up to something over thirteen hundred. 

 Mr. Agassiz still carries out his plan of dispersing his work- 

 ing force in such a manner as to determine the limits of the 

 distribution of species ; to ascertain, for instance, whether 

 those which are in the Amazons at one season may be in 

 the Solimoens at another or at the same time, and also 

 whether those which are found about Manaos extend higher 

 up in the Rio Negro. For this reason, as we have seen, 

 while at Teffe' himself he kept parties above in various locali- 

 ties, at Tabatinga and on the rivers Ic,a and Hyutahy ; 

 and now, while*' he and some of his assistants are collectin 



a 



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