Agassiz (1807-73) was a Swiss-American biologist and geologist recognized as an innovative and prodigious scholar of Earth's natural history. After visiting Harvard University mid-career, he emigrated to the USA in 1847 and became professor of zoology and geology at Harvard. In the present day his resistance to Darwinian evolution and the scientific racism evident in his writings on human polygenism has tarnished his reputation and led to controversies over his legacy. In April 1865 he led a party to Brazil, returning in August 1866, and this work published in 1868 gives an account of that expedition. Agassiz's wife, Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz (nee Cary, 1822-1907), who worked closely with her husband on his scientific research, had helped organize and manage the trip and was the official record-keeper so the book is based on her journal. Illustrated with woodcuts.