1878.] 357 [H^rtt. 



ral, and only an insignificant part of the collection was accessible for 

 study. Since then some four hundred boxes of specimens have been 

 unpacked, the latter having been more or less carefully prepared 

 and arranged in such a way as to be readily found when wanted. 

 The manual labor alone involved in preparing and arranging all this 

 material for study was in itself a gigantic task. So large is the num- 

 ber of specimens that I have not attempted to determine it exactly, 

 but I estimate it roughly as much above five hundred thousand-, so 

 that the collections of the Commission form a large museum, and one 

 of the highest value to science, because its material is unique; and I 

 am sure that its money value to-day, if offered for sale, would more 

 than equal the whole sum expended on the Commission. 



" On leaving the field to take up the more difficult and nice work of 

 the laboratory, it is the duty of the geological explorer to prepare his 

 reports on the district he has examined, his material being his note- 

 books and his collections of rocks, fossils, etc. The study and identi- 

 fication of collections, especially of fossils, is tedious and difficult, and 

 can only be carried on rapidly and successfully where one^ has access 

 to first-class libraries and geological collections, and where one may 

 enjoy intercourse with scientific specialists. Indeed, unless one has 

 made a specialty ef the study of the groups of fossils he has col- 

 lected in the field, even the most experienced geologist of Old World 

 and American surveys is accustomed to hand over for description to 

 specialists at home or abroad the collections he has made, and this 

 recently was the case with the English ' Challenger ' expedition, 

 whose material has been distributed for study among the scientific 

 men of the globe, and several years must elapse before the reports 

 will have been handed in. The work of reducing scientific observa- 

 tions is slow and tedious, if conscientiously done, and it cannot be 

 hastened without detriment to. its accuracy; and scientific work, if 

 not accurate, is worthless. 



" The Geological Commission of Brazil found itself, on returning 

 from the field, with an immense mass of most valuable material, for 

 the most part new, and without a scientific library, without access to 

 museums, and separated by an ocean from specialists in its various 

 departments. The idea of working up palasontological and geologi- 

 cal results under these conditions, and of presenting reports on a par 

 of excellence with those of other geological commissions would seem 

 Utopian to foreign scientific men, and I should never have undertaken 

 the work had not my knowledge of the country enabled me to fore- 



