3 04 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



vessels of the squadron, under the command of Commodore Wilkes, 

 sailed in 1838, on a voyage around the world. After extensive explo- 

 rations, and suffering shipwreck, moreover, at the mouth of the Colum 

 bia River, in Oregon, Mr. Dana returned home in 1842. The rare op- 

 portunities which this voyage afforded for scientific observation had 

 been well improved. During the thirteen years after its termination, 

 he was engaged in preparing for publication the various reports of this 

 expedition committed to his charge. 



Mr. Dana resided at Washington from 1842 to 1844, and then re- 

 turned to New Haven, Connecticut, where he, soon after, married Hen- 

 rietta Frances, third daughter of Prof. Benjamin Silliman, and where 

 he has since resided. Before going to the Pacific, he published, in 

 1837, the first edition of his "Mineralogy," of which the fifth and last 

 edition appeared in 1868. This is a work of high repute, both in Amer- 

 ica and Europe. 



His first publication connected with his observations in the Explor- 

 ing Expedition was a "Report on Zoophytes," which appeared in 1846, 

 a quarto volume of 740 pages, with an atlas of 61 folio plates. In this 

 work Mr. Dana reviewed the whole department of Polypes, combining 

 his own observations with those of earlier authors, and proposed a new 

 classification, bringing, for the first time, the Actiniae and the Alcyo- 

 noid Polypes into their true relations to the Astrseoid Polypes. The 

 number of new species which he describes is 230. 



The second work in the same series was a " Report on the Geology 

 of the Pacific," published in 1849, a quarto volume of 756 pages, with 

 an atlas of 21 plates. This work presents a view not only of the geol- 

 ogy of parts of Australia, Western America, and the islands of the 

 Pacific, but also treats at length, and with original views, of Volcanic 

 Phenomena, Coral Reefs and Islands, and the General Features of the 

 Globe. 



The third work pertaining to this Government Exploring Expedi- 

 tion was a "Report on Crustacea," which appeared in 1852-'54 the 

 text, 1,620 pages quarto; the atlas, 96 plates in folio: 680 species are 

 described in this work, of which 658 are new. The subjects of Clas- 

 sification and Geographical Distribution receive in it special atten- 

 tion. These reports were published by the Government of the United 

 States, and only 200 copies of each have thus far been issued. With 

 few exceptions, the drawings in these atlases were made by Mr. Dana 

 himself. 



While engaged in preparing the last two of these reports, Mr. 

 Dana has been the active editor of the American Journal of Science 

 and Arts, founded in 1819, by Prof. Silliman, Sr., and well known as 

 the gi*eat repository of the scientific labors of their countrymen. To 

 this journal, which has now in 1872 reached its 103d volume, as well as 

 to the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, in 

 Boston, the Lyceum of Natural History, of New York, and the Acade- 



