RIO DE JANEIRO AND ITS ENVIRONS. 



69 



May \8t. — We celebrated May-day in a strange land, 

 where ^lay ushers in the winter, by driving to the Botanical 

 Garden. When I say we^ I mean usually the unprofessional 

 members of the party. The scientific corps are too busily 

 engaged to be with us on many of our little pleasure 

 excursions. Mr. Agassiz himself is chiefly occupied in 

 seeing numerous persons in official positions, whose influ- 

 ence is important in matters relative to the expedition. 

 He is very anxious to complete these necessary prelimi- 

 naries, to despatch his various parties into the interior, and 

 to begin his personal investigations. He is commended to 

 be patient, however, and not to fret at delays ; for, with the 

 best will in the world, the dilatory national habits cannot 

 be changed. Meanwhile he has improvised a laboratory in 

 a large empty room over a warehouse in the Rua Direita, 

 the principal business street of the city. Here in one 

 corner the ornithologists, Mr. Dexter and Mr. Allen, have 

 their bench, — a rough board propped on two casks, the 

 seat an empty keg ; in another, Mr. Anthony, with an 

 apparatus of much the same kind, pores over his shells ; 

 a dissecting-table of like carpentry occupies a conspicuous 

 position ; and in the midst the Professor may generally be 

 seen sitting on a barrel, for chairs there are none, assorting 

 or examining specimens, or going from bench to bench to 

 see how the work progresses. In the midst of the confusion 

 Mr. Burkhardt has his little table, where he is making 

 colored drawings of the fish as they are brought in fresh 

 from the fishing-boats. In a small adjoining room Mr. 

 Sceva is preparing skeletons for mounting. Every one, in 

 short, has his special task and is busily at work. A very 

 questionable perfume, an " ancient and fish-like smell," 

 strongly tinged with alcohol, guides one to this abode of 



