CHAPTER V 
CAMBRIDGE — A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL 
1866-1871 
FTER Mrs. Agassiz’s return to Cambridge from 
Brazil her most important occupation outside of her 
family cares was the preparation of A Journey in Brazil, 
which, as has been said, was published in 1867. Her record 
of Agassiz’s life in the next four years as during the pre- 
vious decade is almost the record of her own, so intimately 
was she connected with every phase of his interests and 
experience. In less than two years after the expedition to 
Brazil his health, in spite of the benefit derived from his 
stay there, broke down again under the pressure of his work 
for the Museum, and although there were periods when it 
was once more vigorous, it always remained precarious and 
a cause of anxiety to Mrs. Agassiz. In 1868 he was able to 
take an extended journey through the West for scientific 
purposes on which Mrs. Agassiz did not accompany him; 
but in the following spring she went with him on a dredging 
expedition off the coast of Cuba and Florida, of which she 
wrote an interesting and picturesque account in an article, 
A Dredging Excursion in the Gulf Stream, which appeared 
in the Atlantic Monthly for October and November, 1869. 
Glimpses of her life during these years—1866-1871—so full 
of occupations, are afforded by the following extracts from 
her letters, written for the greater part to her mother and 
sisters while they were in Europe. 
