Mr. Couthouy’s Reply to Mr. Dana. 389 
in your Journal for July, 1842, which by implication conflicts 
with the claims of another to originality in conceiving a great 
theory. On page 183, (page 75 also of Transactions,) it is 
stated, that ‘Mr. Couthouy read some extracts from his journal, 
‘on the wave-like undulations of the earth’s crust, at all periods 
of disturbance from the most ancient date to the present time.’ ”’ 
I am ignorant how this came to be so worded, but it conveys an 
entirely erroneous idea. The extract read by me referred exclu- 
sively to results produced by recent volcanic action in Hawaii, 
strikingly illustrative on a minor scale of those grand undulations 
of the earth’s crust, so eloquently accounted for by Prof. H. D. 
Rogers, on the principle of a tremendous billowy movement of 
the ignifluous mass beneath, at some remote period. I read noth- 
ing referring to undulations of this description as observed by 
myself. My remarks were introduced at the request of Prof. R. 
on account of their bearing on his theory, as proving that effects 
similar to those described by him, were produced on a diminu- 
tive scale, by a less activity of the same agent, and also to 
prove the singular coincidence of expression between two observ- 
ers of like phenomena, placed thousands of miles apart, occur- 
ring in his notes and my own; the same comparison of the 
undulations to the march of ocean waves, having been made by 
both in terms almost verbatim the same. 
I request you to make this correction, that it may not be here- 
after surmised from the record as it now stands, that any thing 
advanced by me, conflicted with the claim of Prof. Rogers to en- 
tire originality in the views then presented by him. Allow me 
to add, that the coincidence above referred to, is not without 
value for its bearings on the question raised by Mr. Dana, be- 
tween whom and myself the similarity of expression is far less 
striking than this, which was assuredly the result of mere ac- 
cident. 
Respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JosepH P. Coutuovy, 
Late Mem. Scien. Corps U.S. Expl. Exped. 
341 Broadway, New York, August 28, 1843. 
