[Illustration: Cocoeiro Palm] A JOURNEY IN BRAZIL. BY PROFESSOR AND MRS. LOUIS AGASSIZ. And whenever the way seemed long, Or his heart began to fail, She would sing a more wonderful song, Or tell a more marvellous tale. LONGFELLOW. BOSTON: TICKNOR AND FIELDS. 1868. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by TICKNOR AND FIELDS, in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. SECOND EDITION. UNIVERSITY PRESS: WELCH, BIGELOW, & CO., CAMBRIDGE. TO MR. NATHANIEL THAYER, THE FRIEND WHO MADE IT POSSIBLE TO GIVE THIS JOURNEY THE CHARACTER OF A SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION, The Present Volume _IS GRATEFULLY INSCRIBED_. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PREFACE. In the winter of 1865 it became necessary for me, on account of some disturbance of my health, to seek a change of scene and climate, with rest from work. Europe was proposed; but though there is much enjoyment for a naturalist in contact with the active scientific life of the Old World, there is little intellectual rest. Toward Brazil I was drawn by a lifelong desire. After the death of Spix, when a student of twenty years of age, I had been employed by Martius to describe the fishes they had brought back with them from their celebrated Brazilian journey. From that time, the wish to study this fauna in the regions where it belongs had been an ever-recurring thought with me; a scheme deferred for want of opportunity, but never quite forgotten. The fact that the Emperor of Brazil was deeply interested in all scientific undertakings, and had expressed a warm sympathy with my efforts to establish a great zoölogical museum in this country, aiding me even by sending collections made expressly under his order for the purpose, was an additional incentive. I knew that the head of the government would give me every facility for my investigations. Nevertheless, tempting as was the prospect of a visit to Brazil, as a mere vacation it had little charm for me. Single-handed, I could make slight use of the opportunities I should have; and though the excursion might be a pleasant one for myself, it would have no important result for science. I could not forget that, had I only the necessary means, I might make collections on