94 A JOURNEY IX BRAZIL. 



information for the separate journeys.* Yet with the best 

 \vill in the world the Brazilians know comparatively little 

 of the interior of their own country. It is necessary to 

 collect all that is known from a variety of sources, and then 

 to combine it as well as may be, so as to form an organized 

 plan. Even then a great deal must be left to be decided in 

 accordance with circumstances which no one can foresee. 

 Xo pains have been spared to anticipate all the probable 

 difficulties, and to provide for them as far as it is humanly 

 possible to do so ; and we feel that this journey, a part 

 of which has been made by very few persons before, has 

 never been undertaken under better auspices. This party 

 will explore the upper course of the Rio Doce, the Rio 

 das Yelhas, and the San Francisco, with the lower course 

 of the Tocantins and its tributaries, as far as they can ; 

 making also collections of fossils in certain regions upon 

 the route. Another party, starting at about the same time, 

 is to keep nearer the coast, exploring the lower course of 

 the Rio Doce and the San Francisco. Mr. As^assiz thus 



^j 



hopes to make at least a partial survey of this great water 

 system, while he himself undertakes the Amazons and its 

 tributaries.! In the mean time, the result of the weeks 

 he has been obliged to spend in Rio, while organizing the 

 work of these parties and making the practical arrange- 

 ments for its prosecution, has been very satisfactory. The 

 collections are large, and will give a tolerably complete 

 idea of the fauna of this province, as well as a part of 



* A short account of these explorations may be found at the end of the 

 volume L. A. 



t I am particularly indebted to Senator Th. Ottoni, Baron de Prados, 

 Senator Pompeo, Senator Paranagua, Senhor Paula Souza, and Senhor J. B. 

 da Fonseca, for information, maps, and other documents relative to the regions 

 intended to be explored by my young friends and myself. L. A. 



