82 ELIZABETH CARY AGASSIZ 
wonderful, intuitive wisdom — to enjoy it all you 
must live with them and watch them constantly. 
T enclose a letter for Louis with some bird’s feathers 
and a bird’s wing; and the two wings with green and 
blue feathers are, as I have marked them, one for 
Girly (I thought perhaps you could fix her up a doll’s 
hat, or with a riband bow, perhaps, it would do even 
for her own), and the other for Georgie. 
TO MRS. THOMAS G. CARY S 
Rio, [June 10, ca.] 
Last evening Agassiz gave a lecture in French on 
the glacial phenomena, at the Emperor’s request. The 
whole affair was so different from such things at home 
that I must tell you all about it. In the first place, of 
course, when I heard that Agassiz was to lecture here 
it never occurred to me that it would not be open to 
ladies as well as gentlemen, but when I spoke of 
going, people stared and said that, to begin with, a 
public lecture was a thing unknown here, and that 
certainly no ladies would appear. I was very much dis- 
appointed and not a little indignant, for I had never 
heard Agassiz lecture in French, and I knew, too, 
that he would give his first impression of geological 
facts here, and I did not want to lose it. We spoke to 
Dr. Pacheco about it (the director of the affair), and 
he said that he thought it would be a very good thing, 
and he knew some ladies who would like to go, but 
the Emperor must be consulted. So the next time that 
Agassiz was at the palace he asked the Emperor. 
