_August 8th._—Another quite new and beautiful Medusa to-day. As we were waiting for breakfast this morning a number floated past, so dark in color that in the water they appeared almost black. Two of our party took a boat and went in search of them, but the tide was so swift that they swept past like lightning, and one had hardly time to point them out before they were gone again. However, after many efforts, we succeeded in getting one, whose portrait Mr. Burkhardt is now taking. The disk is of a chocolate-brown, shading into a darker, more velvety hue toward the edge, which is slightly scalloped, but not cut up into deep lobes like those of yesterday. The eyes, eight in number, are distinctly visible as lighter-colored specks on the margin. The appendages hanging from the mouth are more solid and not so thickly fringed as in those of yesterday. It moves rather slowly in its glass prison, the broad margin shading from lighter brown to a soft chocolate color almost verging on black, as it flaps up and down somewhat languidly, but still with a regular, steady pulsation.[46] _August 9th._—We passed yesterday afternoon with the Braga family in town. The weather was charming, a cool breeze blowing through the veranda where we dined. There were a number of guests to meet us, and we had again cause to acknowledge how completely the stranger is made to feel himself at home among these hospitable people. We sailed this morning, Mr. Agassiz taking with him a valuable collection, though our time was so short. The fact is, that, not only here, but at every town where we have stopped in coming up the coast, the ready, cordial desire of the people to help in the work has enabled him to get together collections which it would otherwise have been impossible to make in so short a time. If he is unexpectedly successful in this expedition, it is as much owing to the active sympathy of the Brazilians themselves, and to their interest in the objects he has so much at heart, as to the efforts of himself and his companions.