71 p. 21,5x14 cm. No front wrapper, blank rear wrapper is present. Title page is slightly soiled, otherwise in very good condition. 

First edition. Rare. 

Louis Agassiz (1807-1873) was a Swiss-born American naturalist and biologists, student of  Alexander von Humboldt, professor at Harvard University, one of the finest scholars of Earth's natural history of his time. 

Agassiz was active in many different areas of natural sciences throughout the years, but Brazil has been one of his focuses over the years and through his research of Amazon basin he has left the two most important contributions in the science field: his ice age glacier theory and his classification of the freshwater species, including the extinct and rare ones. 

In 1819–1820, Johann Baptist von Spix and Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius conducted their major scientific expedition to Brazil, returning with extensive natural collections, including a significant assemblage of freshwater fish from across the country—especially from the Amazon basin. After Spix’s death in 1826, Martius entrusted the study of these specimens to Louis Agassiz, who completed the project with characteristic intensity. His descriptions of Brazilian fish were published in 1829 and formed the foundation of his early reputation in ichthyology.

Agassiz’s engagement with Brazilian materials extended beyond that. His later geological work sought to apply his glacial theories to the tropics, including the Amazon. He approached this through a hypothesis-driven method, expecting field evidence either to support or refute his ideas. Working with his former student, the geologist Charles Frederick Hartt, Agassiz undertook investigations in the Amazon region. Hartt’s findings ultimately disproved Agassiz’s proposed glacial origin of Amazonian sediments, identifying them instead as products of chemical weathering and fluvial or marine processes—a conclusion later confirmed by other geologists. Although Agassiz correctly believed the Amazon was affected by climatic conditions of the Last Glacial Maximum, his interpretation of glaciation was mistaken. His work nevertheless helped initiate sustained scientific inquiry into the geological history of the Amazon basin.

This book was published when Agassiz was visiting Brazil with an expedition in 1865-1866 (Thayer Expedition). He commissioned two photographers, Augusto Stahl and Georges Leuzinger, to accompany the expedition and produce somatological images of Indigenous people and enslaved Africans and Black people. After his return in August 1866, an account of the expedition, A Journey in Brazil, was published in 1868. These lectures, however, appears not to be translated. 

The book included five lectures given by Agassiz: ‘On the formation of Amazon basin’, ‘State of the Amazon basin now’, ‘On water regimen and erratic phenomenas’, ‘Amazon vegetation. Inidans’, ‘Amazon fauna. What needs to be done by Brazil’. In these lectures Agassiz became one of the first voices in Brazil to speak about the ecology and preservation of the Amazon basin, tell the public about the life of the local indigenous communities and urged treat Amazon carefully. 

The book came out in the important time for the region: in 1851 Amazon province (Província do Amazonas) was officially recognized by the Brazilian government as an autonomous region. In 1866 the main periodical of the region, Jornal Amazonas was established and for the first time the local printing press in Manaus was used for the printing of it.