118 LOUIS AGASSIZ 



enter the yellow Amazon, Martins, 

 whose little vessel fonnd the crossing of 

 the river always dangerous, had come 

 near to losing his life by shipwreck ; 

 and after his safe return to Munich he 

 sent a votive Christ to the little church 

 which stands upon the beach. Thither 

 Agassiz made a dutiful visit when his 

 own special steamer, provided free of 

 charge by the Brazilian government, 

 touched at Santarem. 



Laden with valuable collections for the 

 Museum, with some eighteen hundred 

 new species of fish added to the two 

 hundred formerly known to inhabit the 

 Amazon, with accumulated observations 

 concerning the geographical distribution 

 of fishes in the river-basin a subject 

 which always fascinated Agassiz and 

 with much testimony of greater or less 

 value concerning former glaciers in the 

 tropics, he returned home in the summer 

 of 1866, and promptly fell to work again. 

 He gave some public courses of lectures 



