JEAN LOUIS RODOLPHE AGASSIZ. 487 



ite resort on a rocky peninsula north of Boston Harbour, where 

 his father-in-law, Mr. Gary, had given him a cottage and labor- 

 atory. Here he could study the fauna of the seashore to ex- 

 cellent advantage. 



When the civil war broke out he worked on in full confi- 

 dence that the country would weather the storm, and testified 

 to his faith by becoming naturalized in the darkest hour of the 

 struggle. He deeply felt the misrepresentations of the North 

 that appeared in British newspapers, and in his letters to Brit- 

 ish men of science took pains to convey correct ideas of Ameri- 

 can affairs. Early in this period he was enabled to begin issu- 

 ing the illustrated bulletin of the museum, by a grant of ten 

 thousand dollars from the Massachusetts Legislature. While 

 exerting himself to the utmost to advance his own department, 

 Agassiz was deeply interested in the welfare of Harvard as a 

 whole, and faithfully performed his duty as a member of the 

 academic council of the university. 



In the spring of 1865, feeling the need of complete change 

 of scene, and a release from indoor occupations, Prof. Agassiz 

 planned a trip with his wife to Brazil. Meeting Mr. Nathaniel 

 Thayer, of Boston, one day, the latter engaged him in a con- 

 versation about the proposed trip, and in the course of it 

 offered to pay the expenses of half a dozen scientific assistants. 

 The expedition was accordingly organized and was gone sixteen 

 months. The Pacific Mail Steamship Company gave his party 

 free transport to Rio de Janeiro, the Secretary of the Navy 

 equipped him with a letter requesting commanders of United 

 States vessels of war in southern waters to give him aid and 

 support, while the Emperor of Brazil, with whom Agassiz had 

 long been in friendly relations, showered aid and attentions 

 upon him. The first three months in Brazil were spent in Rio 

 de Janeiro and vicinity, the next ten on the network of Amazo- 

 nian waters, and finally two months were devoted to excur- 

 sions along the coast and in the mountains near Ceara and Rio. 

 It will be remembered that his first scientific work was on Bra- 

 zilian Fishes, and he now made the fresh-water fauna of Brazil 

 one of his two subjects of inquiry. The other was the glacial 

 history of the southern America, which he found as plainly 

 written as he had expected. He brought home many hundreds 

 of species of new fishes where less than two hundred had been 

 known before. An account of the trip was written by him 



