15 



lateral moraine, marking the limit of the mass of ice which he supposes 

 to have filled the Amazonian basin in the glacial period. In the 

 Amazonian Valley itself he had seen that all the geological phenomena 

 are connected with the close of the glacial period, with the melting of 

 the ice and the immense freshets consequent upon its disappearance. 

 Indeed, the valley of the Amazons is the counterpart of our western 

 prairie, only submerged to a great extent at the present time. On 

 leaving the Amazons, the next step in the investigation was to seek the 

 masses of loose materials left by the glacier itself. The time for so im- 

 portant a task was very short, but Professor Agassiz was well pleased 

 with his investigations, for he found on the Serra of Aratanha the glacial 

 phenomena as legible as he had found them twenty-five years before 

 on the hills of Cumberland and Northumberland, of Wales, Scotland, and 

 Ireland, and more recently throughout New England. He says : — 



" In the whole valley of Hash there are no accumulations of morainic 

 materials more characteristic than those I have found here. I hope that 

 before long some members of the Alpine Club, thoroughly familiar with the 

 glaciers of the Old World, not only in their present, but also in their past 

 condition, will come to these mountains of Ceara and trace the outlines of 

 their former glaciers more extensively than it has been possible for me to do 

 in this short journey." 



THE RETURN. — THE MUSEUM. 



On their return from this expedition in Northern Brazil they 

 arrived in Rio de Janeiro at the end of April, and the remainder of 

 their stay in Brazil was passed in revisiting the many places of interest 

 in the neighborhood of Rio. Having received an invitation from 

 Mr. C. K. Garrison, President of the Brazilian and North Amer- 

 ican Steamship Company, they took passage on board one of the 

 fine steamers belonging to that company for the United States, in 

 the summer of 1866, Professor Agassiz bringing with him a col- 

 lection of Natural History from Brazil which added immensely 

 to the wealth of the Museum; and for a long time he was con- 

 stantly occupied in arranging these numerous specimens. He found, 

 however, that the present building was altogether too small for even 

 the proper storing of his lately acquired treasures, without any 

 attempt to exhibit them. By far the most important part of the 

 collections were packed away in barrels and boxes, rendering the use 

 of specimens for study very laborious, owing to the loss of time in 

 finding what was wanted. And as the whole available space, not only 

 in the cellar and the working-rooms, but also in the exhibition-rooms, 

 was occupied with unassorted collections, it was impossible to give to 



