122 



A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. 



July \btTi. — A long botanizing excursion to-day among 

 the Tijuca hills with Mr. Glaziou, director of the Passeio 

 Publico, as guide. It has been a piece of the good fortune 

 attending Mr. Agassiz thus far on this expedition to find in 

 Mr. Glaziou a botanist whose practical familiarity with 

 tropical plants is as thorough as his theoretical knowledge. 

 He has undertaken to enrich our scientific stores with a 

 large collection of such palms and other trees as illustrate 

 the relation between the present tropical vegetation and the 

 ancient geological forests. Such a collection will be invalu- 

 able as a basis for palasontological studies at the Museum of 

 Comparative Zoology in Cambridge. 



July 23(i, — At last our plans for the Amazons seem 

 definitely settled. We sail the day after to-morrow by the 

 Cruzeiro do Sul. The conduct of the government toward 

 the expedition is very generous ; free passages are granted 

 to the whole party, and yesterday Mr. Agassiz received an 

 official document enjoining all persons connected with the 

 administration to give him every facility for his scientific 

 objects. We have another piece of good fortune in the 

 addition to our party of Major Coutinho, a member of 

 the government corps of engineers, who has been engaged 

 for several years in explorations on the Amazonian rivers. 

 Happily for us, he returned to Rio a few weeks ago, and a 

 chance meeting at the palace, where he had gone to re- 

 port the results of the journey just completed, and Mr. 

 Agassiz to discuss the plans for that about to begin, brought 

 them together. This young officer's investigations had made 

 his name familiar to Mr. Agassiz, and when the Emperor 

 asked the latter how he could best assist him, he answered 

 that there was nothing he so much desired or which would 

 so materially aid him as the companionship of Major Cou- 



