difficult to obtain and so expensive as it is here; but Mr. Agassiz has had skeletons made of them, and will preserve the skins of the Peixe-bois for mounting. He obtained at the same time an entirely new genus of the Siluroid family. It is a fish weighing some ten pounds, called here the Pacamum, and of a bright canary color. The evening scene at the “Sitio” was always very pretty. After dinner, when the customary “boa noite,” the universal greeting at the close of the day, had been exchanged, the palm-mats, spread over the platforms, had each their separate group, Indians or negroes, children, members of the family or guests, the central figure being usually that of Major Coutinho, who was considered to be especially successful in the making of coffee and who generally had a mat to himself, where he looked, as the blue flame of his alcohol lamp flickered in the wind, not unlike a magician of old, brewing some potent spell. Little shallow cups, like open antique lamps, filled with oil and having a bit of wick hanging over the edge, were placed about the floors, and served to light the interior of the porch, though after a glimmering and uncertain fashion. On Monday morning we left the “Sitio” and returned to Teffé, where Mr. Agassiz had the pleasure of receiving all his collections, both those he had sent on before him and those which accompanied us, in good condition. _October 9th._—Alexandrina turns out to be a valuable addition to the household, not only from a domestic, but also from a scientific point of view. She has learned to prepare and clean skeletons of fish very nicely, and makes herself quite useful in the laboratory. Besides, she knows many paths in the forest, and accompanies me in all my botanizing excursions; with the keen perceptions of a person whose only training has been through the senses, she is far quicker than I am in discerning the smallest plant in fruit or flower, and now that she knows what I am seeking, she is a very efficient aid. Nimble as a monkey, she thinks nothing of climbing to the top of a tree to bring down a blossoming branch; and here, where many of the trees shoot up to quite a height before putting out their boughs, such an auxiliary is very important. The collections go on apace, and every day brings in new species; more than can be easily cared for,—far more than our artist can find time to draw. Yesterday, among other specimens, a hollow log was brought in, some two feet and a half in length, and about three inches in diameter, crowded with Anojas (a common fish here) of all sizes, from those several inches long to the tiniest young. The thing was so extraordinary that one would have been inclined to think it was prepared in order to be passed off as a curiosity, had not the fish been so dexterously packed into the log from end to end, that it was impossible to get them out without splitting it open, when they were all found alive and in perfectly good condition.