LETTERS FROM BRAZIL 69 
by a brief stay in Rio before the company sailed for home 
on July 2, 1866. 
Mrs. Agassiz was the self-appointed clerk of the ex- 
pedition, keeping a careful journal of daily events, which 
she sent as letters to her family, taking complete notes 
of a course of lectures which Agassiz delivered on ship- 
board for the benefit of the young men of his party, and 
recording the less minute results of Agassiz’s scientific ob- 
servations, which he daily gave her, for he knew, as he said, 
“that she would allow nothing to be lost that was worth 
preserving.” This varied material was later woven to- 
gether into a narrative in the form of a journal with sup- 
plementary notes, combining personal experience and 
scientific facts; it was essentially the common work of Agas- 
siz and Mrs. Agassiz and was published under their joint 
names in 1867 with the title, A Journey in Brazil. So com- 
plete a record of the sixteen months in Brazil is preserved 
in this book that a full account of them here would be su- 
perfluous. A sketch of the manner of life that they led is 
given by Mrs. Agassiz in a few words in the biography of 
Agassiz: “Much of the time Agassiz and his companions 
were living on the great river [the Amazon] itself, and the 
deck of the steamer was by turns laboratory, dining-room, 
and dormitory. Often as they passed close under the banks 
of the river, or between the many islands that break its 
broad expanse into narrow channels, their improvised work- 
ing room was overshadowed by the lofty wall of vegetation, 
which lifted its dense mass of trees and soft drapery of 
vines on either side. Still more beautiful was it when they 
left the track of the main river for the water-paths hidden 
in the forest. Here they were rowed by Indians in ‘mont- 
