528 Hevtews — ffartfs Geology of BraziL 



I. — Scientific Eesults of a Journey in Brazil. By Louis Agassiz, 

 and his travelling companions. Geology and Physical GtEO- 

 GRAPHY OF Brazil, By Chas. Fred. Hartt, Professor of 

 Geology in Cornell University. 8vo. pp. 620, with numerous 

 illustrations. London : Triibner & Co., 1870. 



THE reader who takes up Professor Hartt's book, expecting to 

 find therein only a sketch of the Geology and Physical 

 Geography of Brazil, will be agreeably disappointed ; for the six 

 hundred and tv/enty well-stored pages contain much else than ,can 

 be rigidly construed as belonging to either of these departments of 

 Natural Science. Professor Hartt was not content with his gleanings 

 in Brazil, made during the brief period occupied by the " Thayer 

 Expedition " under Professor Agassiz, but he returned and made a 

 second exploration, in order to continue, and as far as possible com- 

 plete, his first investigations. 



If we mistake not, we suspect Professor Hartt is even more at 

 home in a dredging expedition than in a stone-quarry, and the book 

 before us betrays the spirit of the ardent zoologist, quite as much as 

 that of the geologist or geographer. 



Nor are we disposed to find fault with this, for, by aid of the 

 author's wider knowledge, we see and learn muoh more of the 

 Brazilian Empire than we should otherwise have done from -a mere 

 " stanecracker," as the Scotch country-folk call geologists. 



The " Thayer Expedition " was undertaken in the years 1865 and 

 1866. " On this journey," says Professor Hartt, "I studied very 

 carefully the Geology and Physical Geography of the coast between 

 Eio and Bahia, going over a very large part of the ground on horse- 

 back or in canoe." "My companion," he adds, "was Mr. Edward 

 Copeland, of Boston," whose services are duly acknowledged. 

 During this journey, the author made very large collections of 

 marine invertebrates and fishes, nor did he neglect to secure other 

 objects of Natural History. Mr. Hartt adds, " My studies of the 

 stone and coral reefs, and of the geology of Brazil, proved so very 

 attractive to me, that on the year following I returned to Brazil and 

 spent my vacation, several months, in examining the coast between 

 Pernambuco and Eio, exploring more particularly the vicinity of 

 Bahia and the islands and coral-reefs of the Abrolhos." 



The present volume was originally intended only as a report to 

 Professor Agassiz as Director of the "Thayer Expedition," to em- 

 brace simply the results of Mr. Hartt's explorations as geologist to 

 that expedition, and his subsequent journey to Eio, etc. But the 

 delay in publication has given Mr. Hartt the opportunity to examine 

 the existing literature on Brazil ; and thus, from a simple account of 

 his own investigations, his book has grown to be a general work in- 

 corporating the chief results of others who have written on the 

 Geology and Physical Geography of the Empire. 



It would be impossible, in our limited space, to give more than a 



