Profcs.sor Ch. Fred. Hartt, M. A. — Simomls. So 
"seunis and the taking; of advice of scientific men eminent in 
"specialties likely to be of use in Brazil, and but for the fact 
"that each man came to his work furnished with abundant 
"notes and books it would have been impossible to have done 
"more than prepjire mere broad descriptions of the parts of the 
"countr}'^ explored and anything like the critical study of fossils 
"and the accurate determination of formations would have 
"been absolutel}^ impossible. All this preliminary work, so ex- 
"ceedingly important to the Geological Commission, has cost 
"nothing to government. Instead of being forced to send 
"collections to foreign scientific men for study, the Geological 
"Commission has been able, in its own laboratories and with 
"its own resourci's. to pi'epare for publication a ver}'- consid- 
"erable part of its results, though this work has naturall}^ 
"progressed mucli more slowly than it would have done under 
"superior advaiitages. My g4-eat desire has been to lay a firm 
"foundation for Brazilian geology in the development of pahe- 
"ontological localities and the accurate determination of 
"characteristic formations by means of fossils, and to this 
"end the Commission has labored with a degree of success 
"surprising even to myself, and we find ourselves to-day with 
"an evtharraa de r/c//ef,:ses. The Commission as at present 
"constituted comprises only six persons, on whom has fallen 
"all this work of collecting, arranging, and studying this ma- 
"terial, which in richness is to be compared with that of the 
"'Thayer,' or 'Hassler,' or 'Challenger" expeditions; and it is 
"not reasonable to expect that, without free access to scien- 
"tiiic libraries and to collections for comparison, the work of 
"the Brazilian Commission should go on more rapidly than 
"that of the foreign commissions where the material is divided 
"up among dozens of specialists and where the scientific man 
"enjoys every advantage. As it is, it will be several years be- 
"fore the full results of these commissions are prepared for 
"publication. P^or six persons to unpack, assort, prepare, and 
"describe the immense collections made by the Geological 
"Commission in less than one year was an absolute impossi- 
"bility, as every scientific man will agree with me. and in the 
"six months generously granted me after the suppression of 
"Commission by the Camaras I had only the hope of saving 
"as large a fragment as possible of our results. It is needless 
