126 ELIZABETH GARY AGASSIZ 



winter. Now there are cactus vines over doors and 

 gateways full of white blossoms which look exactly 

 like the night blooming cereus, as large and lovely, 

 though I suppose they cannot be the same kind or 

 they would not be open in the daylight. Altogether 

 I find myself very happy to be back here again. I did 

 not think it would give me so much pleasure to see it 

 all once more. 



Rio de Janeiro, February 10 

 The life one falls into on board ship is so strange. You 

 have known it only in the European passages, where 

 in the first place you have so many more companions 

 to choose from, and then you know too that it is only 

 for a fortnight; but to be shut up with some eighteen 

 people for a year in such narrow quarters, seeing them 

 day in and day out, all their little peculiarities brought 

 out by the friction of close contact, is a curious ex- 

 perience; and then you add to it that you yourself are 

 subjected to the same sharp analysis — that they are 

 looking at you through their microscope as well as you 

 at them through yours, and the position is still more 

 singular. 



TO MRS. QUINCY A. SHAW 

 Straits of Magellan, Sandy Point, February 18 

 Here we are safe and sound at the threshold of the 

 wonderful region where mountains rise steeply from 

 narrow ocean channels and glaciers plunge sheer down 

 into the sea, — at least, that is what people say. I'll 

 tell you whether it 's true the next time we meet. At all 



