82 ELIZABETH GARY AGASSIZ 



wonderful, intuitive wisdom — to enjoy it all you 

 must live with them and watch them constantly. 



I enclose a letter for Louis with some bird's feathers 

 and a bird's wing; and the two wings w^ith green and 

 blue feathers are, as I have marked them, one for 

 Girly (I thought perhaps you could fix her up a doll's 

 hat, or with a riband bow, perhaps, it would do even 

 for her own) , and the other for Georgie. 



TO MRS. THOMAS G. GARY 



Rio, [June 10, ca.] 

 Last evening Agassiz gave a lecture in French on 

 the glacial phenomena, at the Emperor's request. The 

 whole affair was so different from such things at home 

 that I must tell you all about it. In the first place, of 

 course, when I heard that Agassiz was to lecture here 

 it never occurred to me that it would not be open to 

 ladies as well as gentlemen, but when I spoke of 

 going, people stared and said that, to begin with, a 

 public lecture was a thing unknown here, and that 

 certainly no ladies would appear. I was very much dis- 

 appointed and not a little indignant, for I had never 

 heard Agassiz lecture in French, and I knew, too, 

 that he would give his first impression of geological 

 facts here, and I did not want to lose it. We spoke to 

 Dr. Pacheco about it (the director of the affair) , and 

 he said that he thought it would be a very good thing, 

 and he knew some ladies who would like to go, but 

 the Emperor must be consulted. So the next time that 

 Agassiz was at the palace he asked the Emperor. 



