354 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



on an excursion to the Amazons. He thus caught his first glimpse 

 of tropical life, which wove about him a spell, which always there- 

 after bound him. 



In 1874 he returned to Brazil for the purpose of collecting and 

 studying the fauna of the Amazonian regions. Two years were 

 spent in the neighborhood of Santarem, and subsequently he passed 

 a year in explorations upon the northern tributaries of the Amazons 

 and the Tapajos, after which he stayed about four nionths in Rio 

 de Janeiro. Returning to the United States he was commissioned 

 by the Messrs. Scribner to write a series of articles upon Brazil for 

 their magazine, and accordingly made two more trips to that 

 country, studying -the industries, social and political conditions, 

 and investigating the famine district in Ceara. On one of these 

 journeys he was accompanied by Mr. J. Wells Champney, who 

 was employed to prepare illustrations for his articles. One of the 

 results of these journeys was the volume entitled "Brazil, the 

 Amazons, and the Coast," which was issued by Charles Scribner's 

 Sons in 1879. On October 5, 1880, Mr. Smith married Miss 

 Amelia Woolworth Smith, of Brooklyn, New York. She entered 

 with zest into his labors, and in all the years which followed was 

 his devoted and most capable assistant. There was a remarkable 

 accord in their tastes and Mrs. Smith developed unusual skill and 

 efficiency in the manipulative processes involved in collecting 

 specimens of natural history. Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say 

 that her learned husband would not have been able to accomplish 

 the vast amount of work, which was achieved in later years, had 

 it not been for her facile fingers. She became an accomplished 

 taxidermist, and was able to prepare the skins of birds and preserve 

 insects, in the most approved manner. Mr. Smith and his wife 

 spent the years from 1881 to 1886 in Brazil. He made his general 

 headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, where he received miich encourage- 

 ment from the Emperor, Dom Pedro II., who was deeply interested 

 in scientific research. During these years he traveled extensively 

 and spent a long time in exploring the then little known territory 

 along the upper waters of the Rio Paraguay and the Rio Guapore 

 on the western confines of Brazil, in the vicinit}- of Matto Grosso 

 and Chapada. The extensive series of specimens which he gathered 

 during these years of fruitful collecting were accpiired partly by the 



