15 



having replenished his frugal means with the proceeds of a 

 second course of lectures before the Lowell Institute (viz., 

 upon Comparative Physiology, a good condensed short-hand 

 report of which was published at the time), — he accompanied 

 Capt. Atwood of Provincetown, m a small sloop, upon a fish- 

 ing voyage high up the coast of Labrador ; in the winter of 

 1852, going to Florida for his health, he began his fruitful 

 series of explorations and collections in that interesting 

 district. In 1854, accompanied by his wife, he travelled 

 extensively in Europe, and visited all the museums within 

 his reach. In the spring of 1856, with his pupils, Green and 

 Bancroft, as companions and assistants, he sailed to Surinam, 

 penetrated far into the interior in canoes, made important 

 researches upon the ground, and enriched his museum with 

 some of its most interesting collections. These came near 

 being too dearly bought, as he and his companions took the 

 fever of the country, from which he suffered severely, and 

 recovered slowly. Again, in 1858-9, accepting the thought- 

 ful and generous invitation of Capt. J. M. Forbes, he made 

 a voyage to the La Plata, ascended the Uraguay and the 

 Parana in a small iron steamer which Capt; Forbes brought 

 upon the deck of his vessel ; then, with his friend George 

 Augustus Peabody as a companion, he crossed the pampas 

 to Mendosa, and the Cordilleras to Santiago and Valparaiso, 

 whence he came home by way of the Peruvian coast and the 

 Isthmus. 



By such expeditions many of the choice materials of his 

 museum and of his researches were gathered, at his own 

 expense, to be carefully prepared and elaborated by his own 

 unaided hands. A vast neighboring museum is a splendid 

 example of what munificence, called forth by personal enthu- 



