IV AN EPISCOPAL TRILOGY 145 



In the course of his doubtless well-meant ad- 

 monitions, the Duke of Argyll commits himself 

 to a greater number of statements which are de- 

 monstrably incorrect and which any one who 

 ventured to write upon the subject ought to have 

 known to be incorrect, than I have ever seen 

 gathered together in so small a space. 



I submit a gathering from the rich store for the 

 appreciation of the public. 



First : 



Mr. Murray's new explanation of the structure of coral-reefs 

 and islands was communicated to the Royal Society of Edinburgh 

 in 1880, and supported with such a weight of facts and such a 

 close texture of reasoning, that no serious reply has ever been 

 attempted (p. 305). 



" No serious reply has ever been attempted " ! I 

 suppose that the Duke of Argyll may have heard 

 of Professor Dana, whose years of labour devoted 

 to corals and coral-reefs when he was naturalist 

 of the American expedition under Commodore 

 Wilkes, more than forty years ago, have ever since 

 caused him to be recognised as an authority of the 

 first rank on such subjects. Now does his Grace 

 know, or does he not know, that, in the year 1885, 

 Professor Dana published an elaborate paper " On 

 the Origin of Coral-Reefs and Islands," in which, 

 after referring to a Presidential Address by the 

 Director of the Geological Survey of Great Britain 

 and Ireland delivered in 1883, in which special 



