LIFE OF JAMES DWIGHT DANA 



They have brought up some large masses of rock which 

 were found imbedded in the ice-specimens of the con- 

 tinent. They consist of granite, basalt, red sandstone, 

 and granular quartz rock. 



" The vessels have all come in here, excepting the Pea- 

 cock. She was compelled to return north shortly after 

 reaching the ice, having been blocked up in it and very 

 severely injured. They were in imminent danger for a 

 while, but were at last extracted with a loss of the rudder 

 and forefoot. She was so badly injured that in all prob- 

 ability she would not afterwards have stood a gale of 

 wind ; they were, however, favored with fine weather and 

 reached Sydney in safety. 



" You will probably read a full account of these dis- 

 coveries in the papers, as Captain Wilkes has sent home 

 an extended report with copies of the charts. My letter, 

 as you know, cannot be made public." 



The next letter, to Dr. Gray, gives a vivid picture of 

 the scientific work of the expedition. It is written with 

 great freedom, as to a colleague who had missed the op- 

 portunity to go with the explorers. 



TO ASA GRAY 



A Review of the First Half of the Voyage, for his Scien- 

 tific Friends 



" FEEJEE ISLANDS, June 15, 1840. 



" We have been threading our way for the past month 

 among the reefs and shoals of the Feejee Islands, some- 

 times aground, and often within but little of it. We are 

 now so accustomed to thumps against the reefs that they 

 seldom interrupt me in my studies or investigations be- 

 low. The danger of navigation here has not been mis- 

 represented. Throw a large number some hundred or 

 a hundred and fifty of islands together, and so thickly 

 that sailing among them you are rarely out of sight of 

 land ; run out from these islands long coral reefs, in dif- 

 ferent directions, above and below water; and among 

 these, numerous sunken reefs of all sizes from a few feet in 

 diameter to many miles, and you have a facsimile of the 



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