WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



before no difficulty, however great. As an explorer she 

 was as venturesome as Crevaux and as conscientious as La 

 Condamine. Like them, who were both her countrymen, 

 she spent many years of her life in the equinoctial regions, 

 and, like them, she contributed immensely to our knowledge 

 of the Land of the Southern Cross. 



Never did the tropics have a greater fascination for 

 anyone than for Mme. Coudreau. During the twelve years 

 she spent there, exploring its rivers and traversing its 

 interminable forests, the spell of Amazonia was ever upon 

 her and was never broken, even for a moment. 



"I have," she writes, "loved everything in Amazonia, 

 the great majestic woodland and the mysterious virgin 

 forest, the beautiful rivers with their traitorous waters and 

 thundering cataracts, the suffocating air and the perfumed 

 breeze, the burning sun and the sweet freshness of night, 

 the impressive voice of the wind among the trees and the 

 torrential rain. And, contrary to the usual custom of man 

 of bringing everything under his domination, it is I who 

 have become a captive of this savage life which I love, and 

 have permitted it to take possession of all my soul and all 

 my will." 1 



Elsewhere she declares: "In the solitude of the virgin 

 forest I am calm, tranquil, experience no ennui and am 

 almost merry. When I am obliged to leave the great wood- 

 land the power to struggle grows less in me. I become of 

 an excessive sensibility. I feel more keenly life's blows. 

 I am not armed for elbowing my way and making a place 

 for myself in the sunshine. I neither love nor understand 

 anything except my virgin forest. There, indeed, I suffer 

 from the inclemency of the weather, from hunger, from 

 sickness; but these are only physical sufferings and are 

 soon forgotten, while moral and interior pains, on the con- 

 trary, are ineradicable. ' ' 2 



1 Voyage au Maycuru, p. 1, Paris, 1903. 



2 Voyage au Rio Curud, p. 85, Paris, 1903. 



