CHAPTER V 



CAIVIBRIDGE — A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL 



1866-1871 



AFTER Mrs. Agassiz's return to Cambridge from 

 Brazil her most important occupation outside of her 

 family cares was the preparation of A Journey in Brazil, 

 which, as has been said, was pubHshed in 1867. Her record 

 of Agassiz*s Hfe in the next four years as during the pre- 

 vious decade is almost the record of her own, so intimately 

 was she connected with every phase of his interests and 

 experience. In less than two years after the expedition to 

 Brazil his health, in spite of the benefit derived from his 

 stay there, broke down again under the pressure of his work 

 for the Museum, and although there were periods when it 

 was once more vigorous, it always remained precarious and 

 a cause of anxiety to Mrs. Agassiz. In 1868 he was able to 

 take an extended journey through the West for scientific 

 purposes on which Mrs. Agassiz did not accompany him; 

 but in the following spring she went with him on a dredging 

 expedition off the coast of Cuba and Florida, of which she 

 wrote an interesting and picturesque account in an article, 

 A Dredging Excursion in the Gulf Stream, which appeared 

 in the Atlantic Monthly for October and November, 1869. 

 Glimpses of her life during these years — 1866-1871 — so full 

 of occupations, are afforded by the following extracts from 

 her letters, written for the greater part to her mother and 

 sisters while they were in Europe. 



