VOYAGE FEOM NEW YORK TO RIO DE JANEIRO. 



5 



ests will help each other; when naturalists will be more 

 liberal and sailors more cultivated, and natural science and 

 navigation will work hand in hand. And now for my 

 lecture, — my first lecture on ship-board." 



The lecture was given, of course, specimen in hand, the 

 various inhabitants of the branch of sea-weed giving their 

 evidence in succession of their own structure and way of 

 life. To these living illustrations were added drawings on 

 the blackboard to show the transformations of the animals, 

 their embryological history, &c.* Since the lecture. Captain 

 Bradbury has fitted up a large tank as an aquarium, where 

 any specimens taken during the voyage may be preserved 

 and examined. Mr. Agassiz is perfectly happy, enjoying 

 every hour of the voyage, as well he may, surrounded as 

 he is with such considerate kindness. 



April 6th. — ■ Though I took notes, as usual, of the lecture 

 yesterday, I had not energy enough to enter them in my 

 journal. The subject was the Gulf Stream, — the stream 

 itself this time, not the animals it carries along with it. 

 Mr. Agassiz's late observations, though deeply interesting to 

 himself, inasmuch as personal confirmation of facts already 

 known is always satisfactory, have nothing novel now-a- 

 days ; yet the history of the facts connected with the dis- 

 covery of the Gulf Stream, and their gradual development, 

 is always attractive, and especially so to Americans, on ac- 

 count of its direct connection with scientific investigations 



^ The species of Hydroids most numerous upon the gulf-weed have not yet 

 been described, and would form a valuable addition to the Natural History of 

 the Acalephs. For an account of the animals of this class inhabiting the Atlan- 

 tic coast of North America, and especially the New England shores, I may vefer 

 to the third volume of my Contributions to the Natural History of the United 

 States, and to the second number of the Illustrated Catalogue of the Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge. — L. A. 



