LIFE AT MAX A OS. 195 



i 



connaitre les ressources de la foret et mieux encore en 

 me fournissant les moyens d'en tirer parti. Merci, mille 

 fois, merci. Je dois aussi tenir grand compte de 1'as- 

 sistance qne ni'ont fournie les agents de la compagnie 

 sur tons les points ou nous avons touche. Notre aimable 

 commandant s'est egalement eVertue, et pendant que j'ex- 

 plorais les lacs des environs de Villa Bella il a fait lui- 

 merne une tres belle collection dans 1'Amazone nieme, 

 ou il a recueilli de nombreuses petites especes que les 

 pecheurs negligent toujours. A Farrive'e du Belem, j'ai 

 re^u votre aimable lettre et une partie de 1' alcohol que 

 j'avais demande a M. Bond. Je lui e*cris aujourd'hui 

 pour qu'il m'en envoie encore une partie a Teffe et plus tard 

 davantage a Manaos. Je vous remercie pour le catalogue 

 des poissons du Para ; je vous le restituerai a notre retour, 

 avec les additions que je ferai pendant le reste du voyage. 

 Adieu, mon cher ami. 



Tout & vous, 



L. AGASSIZ.* 



* Senahor Pimento, Bueno. 



MY DEAR FRIEND : You will probably be surprised to receive only a 

 few lines from me after the time which has elapsed since my last letter. 

 The truth is, that, since Obydos, I hare passed from surprise to surprise, 

 and that I have scarcely had time to take care of the collections we have 

 made, without being able to study them properly. Thus, during the wei-k 

 we spent in the environs of Villa Bella, at Lago Jose Assii and Lago Maximo, 

 we have collected one hundred and eighty species of fishes, two thirds of which, 

 at least, are new, while those of my companions who remained at Sanrarem and 

 npon the Tapajoz have brought back some fifty more, making already more 

 than three hundred species, including those of Porto do Moz, of Gurupa, of 

 Tajapuni, and of Monte Alegre. You see that before having ascended the 

 Amazons for one third of its course, the number of fishes is more than triple 

 that of all the species known thus far, and I begin to perceive that we shall not 

 do more than skim over the surface of the centre of this great l>a>in. What 

 will it be when it becomes possible to study all its affluents at leisure and in the 



