RECENT MOLLUSCA OF AUGUSTUS ADDISON GOULD 7 



The original plans had called for a staff of 25 scientists, but in the end 

 the number of vessels assigned to the expedition was reduced and all 

 of the studies pertaining to the naval profession — hydrography, 

 geography, meteorology, and physics — were turned over to the naval 

 officers of the expedition. The reduced civilian scientific staff con- 

 sisted of the following men: Horatio Hale, philologist; Charles 

 Pickering and Titian R. Peale, naturalists; Joseph P. Couthouy, 

 conchologist; James D. Dana, mineralogist; William Rich, botanist; 

 William D. Brackenridge, horticulturist and assistant botanist; 

 Alfred T. Agate and Joseph Drayton, draughtsmen. The pay of the 

 scientists was $2,500 a year plus rations; that of the two artists, 

 $2,000. 



The squadron sailed from Norfolk, Virginia, on August 18, 1838. 

 The vessels included the sloops-of-war Vincennes and Peacock, the 

 brig Porpoise, the storeship Belief, and the two tenders Sea Gull and 

 Flying Fish. The Sea Gull was lost off Cape Horn in the spring of 

 1839. The Relief was such a slow sailer that she was sent home from 

 Callao, Peru, the same summer. The Peacock was wrecked on a bar 

 at the mouth of the Columbia River, Oregon, and was replaced by 

 a merchant vessel which had been renamed the Oregon. The Flying 

 Fish was sold in Singapore as too unseaworthy to make the return 

 voyage. Thus, the only vessels completing the entire trip were the 

 Vincennes and the Porpoise. 



From Norfolk the vessels crossed the Atlantic to Madeira and the 

 Cape Verde Islands, recrossed the Atlantic to Rio de Janeiro, worked 

 around Cape Horn, and arrived in Callao, Peru, in the summer of 

 1839. During the winter of 1838-1839, while based in Tierra del 

 Fuego, Wilkes had made an excursion into the Antarctic with part 

 of the squadron. On quitting Peru, either the squadron or individual 

 vessels explored the South Pacific Islands, Australia, and New 

 Zealand. Leaving Sydney, Australia, during December of 1840, 

 Wilkes spent the months of January and February following the 

 coastline of Antarctica until he convinced himself that he had found 

 the continent. 1 



From New Zealand the expedition went to the Hawaiian Islands, 

 and then, during 1841, explored the northwest coast of the United 

 States and California. The vessels left California to cruise again in 

 the South Pacific, then proceeded to the Philippine Islands, Singapore, 

 the Cape of Good Hope, and St. Helena. 



i A recent study by B. P. Lambert and P. Q. Law presented at a symposium on Antarctica, held In 

 Buenos Aires, appears to confirm Wilkes' assertions. They found a striking similarity between the shape 

 of the coast as sketched by Wilkes in 1840 and a detailed chart based on their own explorations of the past 

 two years as well as photographs taken by seaplanes from the 1947 expedition of the United States Navy. 

 They suggest that "the whole question of the reliability of Wilkes' observations might well be reviewed" 

 (The New York Times, January 10, 1960, vol. 119, p. 1). 



