27 



fully where one has access to first-class libraries and 

 geological collections, and where one may enjoy inter- 

 course with scientific specialists. Indeed, unless one has 

 made a specialty of the study of the groups of fossils he 

 has collected in the field, even the most experienced 

 geologist of Old World and American surveys is accus- 

 tomed to hand over for description to specialists at home 

 or abroad the collections he has made, and this recentl}^ 

 was the case with the English 'Challenger' expedition, 

 whose material has been distributed for study among the 

 scientific men of the globe, and several 3'ears must elapse 

 before the reports will have been handed in. The work 

 of reducing scientific observations is slow and tedious, if 

 conscientiously done, and it cannot be hastened without 

 detriment to its accuracy ; and scientific work, if not 

 accurate, is worthless. 



"The Geological Commission of Brazil found itself, on 

 returning from the field, with an immense mass of most 

 valuable material, for the most part new, and without a 

 scientific library, without access to museums, and sepa- 

 rated by an ocean from specialists in its various depart- 

 ments. The idea of working up paleeontological and 

 geological results under these conditions, and of present- 

 ing reports on a par of excellence with those ot other 

 geological commissions would seem Utopian to foreign 

 scientific men, and I should never have undertaken the 

 work had not my knowledge of the country enabled me 

 to foresee results and to prepare myself and my assist- 

 ants beforehand for the probable work before us. Except 

 for several years of preparatory work in the United 

 States, the consulting of the best libraries and museums 

 and the taking of advice of scientific men eminent in 

 specialties likely to be of use in Brazil, and but for the 

 fact that each man came to his work furnished with 

 abundant notes and books, it would have been impossible 

 to have done more than prepare mere broad descriptions 

 of the parts of the country explored, and anything like 

 the critical study of fossils, and the accurate determina- 

 tion of formations would have been absolutely impossible. 



