1866.] • SENATE— No. 67. 



[A.] 



SEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT 



Of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, at Harvard College in Cam- 

 bridge, Massachusetts, 



By Alexander Agassiz, Assistant in Charge. 



As the report of the Museum Committee to the Trustees, 

 together with the action of the Board of Trustees relative to 

 the expedition now collecting in Brazil, is printed with this 

 Report, it is hardly necessary for me to do more than allude 

 again to the munificent aid given by Mr. Nathaniel Thayer to 

 the Director of the Museum, for the purpose of making a 

 thorough scientific survey of certain parts of Brazil, with the 

 view not only of advancing the interests of the institution, to 

 which he has been such a generous friend, by adding the 

 immense collections to be brought together to our stores, but 

 also in the hope of giving Professor Agassiz larger materials 

 for the solution of problems with which he has been identified 

 from the commencement of his scientific career. 



How far the aim of the expedition is likely to be accomplished 

 can be gathered from the statements presented by the Museum 

 Committee concerning the progress of the Thayer Expedition ; 

 since that period later advices from Professor Agassiz show that 

 he has been eminently successful in making collections, as pre- 

 vious to his ascent of the Amazons no less than seventy-five bar- 

 rels and boxes had been filled and were awaiting shipment at Rio 

 Janeiro, Bahia and Pard. The unprecedented facilities offered 

 to the expedition by the Brazilian government, as well as by 

 the steam-boat and railroad companies, will contribute largely 

 to its success and to the accumulation of collections. The 

 Amazons Navigation Company, by placing a steamer at the 

 disposal of Professor Agassiz, will enable him to make an 

 exhaustive ichthyological survey of the Amazons and it's tribu- 



