| Show THE AGASSIZ expedition 2 IN BRASIL the boston transcript publishes several letters letten relating to fhe the brazilian expedition of among them thein is a note from agassiz to governor andrew introducing isi azambuja the brazilian minister and adding the emperor has overwhelmed me with attentions and given me the most substantial assistance in the way of a steamer placed at it my disposal upon the amazon so you see that the liberality of mr ar thayer has already produced more results than any of us could have expected I 1 only hope that now that the war is over the means of theila the museum may be so enlarged as to make that institution the most important in existence within as short a period as possible we have vindicated our political institutions let us now place our social condition and our means of intellectual tel and moral improvements far above those of other nations ij AGASSIZ A letter etter from one of assistants contains the following C interesting information iduria it during 11 three days we spent at the lake Hya nuary we caught seventy six diff different erent species most of them new the most important was anew a new genus of the with P 0 tail tall ending moling in the tha shape of a lance which professor agassiz called after dr coutinho we were we re accompanied by the president of the province pr otince who afforded alfor ded us all conveniences by his secretary and other gentlemen our collection is at the present time of seven hundred and seventy six species of which six hundred and fifty are new professor agassiz said before entering the amazonas amazons I 1 he would be satisfied if lie he could obtain two hundred and fifty species the result as you perceive perceivers is beyond all ali expectation the professor calls it a true revelation for science the species of para are entirely distinct from those of Taja the latter from those of gurupa these from those of alonte lionte allegre and so on even between neighboring places the difference is great besides the amazonas amazons contain a 3 large number of provinces inhabited by distinct species the discovery of th this I 1 s important fact opens a new horizon to scientific investigations and is the safest basis in the study of the distribution of species this great principle being established the number of the provinces remain to be known and the extension of their limits as well as the causes of their difference these questions require much labor and study but their result must be extraordinary i and perhaps the most inheres interesting ting in the study of nature another letter dated november 25 says that the number of new fishes found is eleven hundred and sixty three 1 |
