384 Mr. Couthouy’s Reply to Mr. Dana. 
Omitting for the present farther comment on his assertion that the 
opinions here falsely quoted as mine were derived from him, 1 
affirm in the next place, that Mr. Dana is guilty of gross and in- 
excusable misrepresentation of my actual views in regard to tem- 
perature limiting the growth of corals. I have never named, 
either directly, or otherwise, any particular standard of tem- 
perature as limiting such growth, but on the contrary, have de- 
clared that we were not yet possessed of sufficient data to estab- 
lish that point, and Mr. Dana betrays that he feels the weakness 
of his cause, by thus ascribing to me opinions I have never en- 
tertained. I leave others to pass judgment on his motives for 
doing this, merely remarking, that could it be made to appear 
that I had named, or intended to name, as a limiting temperature, 
that designated by himself, it would give a coloring of probability 
to his charge. 
Moreover, so far from specifying 76° Fahrenheit as such limit, 
by mistake, as heasserts, for 70° Fahrenheit, the limit assigned 
by him, I have in my published views expressly stated my con- 
viction, that wherever this temperature of 76° exists, there corals 
will be found to flourish in their utmost profusion. In proof of 
this, I adduce the following extracts from my article on coral for- 
mations in the Pacific. Speaking of a reef near Tutuila, one of 
the Samoan group, on which were thirteen fathoms water, I re- 
mark, “This ledge, distant about two and a half miles from the 
coast, which. was very steep, was profusely covered, with coral. 
The surface temperature was here 81°, and that of the bo¢- 
tom 76° Fahrenheit. ‘Throughout the Coral Archipelago to the 
eastward of Tahiti, the surface temperature ranges from 78° to 
81°. The same may be said of that in the neighborhood of 
the detached islets, between Tahiti and Samoa, to the west. 
Throughout this region, I observed all kinds of corals flourish- 
ing in perfection on the outer plateau of the reefs, at a depth of 
seven, eight, andin some cases, as that just cited, twelve or thir- 
teen fathoms.”* ‘That I here intended to prove, that as through- 
out the Archipelago, where corals flourish in such perfection, the 
surface temperature is the same as at the reef off Tutuila; so also 
is the temperature of the bottom, i. e. 76° Fahrenheit,—is surely 
obvious, even without what here follows. ‘It is my belief that 
* Boston Jour. Nat. Hist. Vol. IV, pp. 74, 75. 
