Mr. Dana's Reply to Mr. Couthouy 1 s Vindication. 131 



macy and confidence will set aside any imputation on my fidelity 

 to him while abroad. 



This intimacy and confidence continued, as he states, to the 

 last. Tt led me, on arriving from the Feejees, to lay before him 

 my Report alluded to, and my coral drawings, the latter includ- 

 ing the coral animals of more than one hundred species. The 

 Report, so strangely forgotten, extended over seventy xoritten 

 pages, and occupied us nearly six hours in reading. After present- 

 ing him all my ideas and showing him the drawings, I proposed, 

 (in view of what I had done in this branch of science — the zoolo- 

 gical part of which belonged rightly to him, and the geological 

 to me,*) that we should unite our labors and bring out a report 

 together on the whole subject of corals ; and from the kindness 

 with which the suggestion was received, I believed it to be a set- 

 tled agreement between us. Soon after this, Mr. Couthouy was 

 detached from the squadron, and, before finally separating, the 

 proposition was again talked over, and the importance discussed 

 of his making observations in the West Indies, towards the joint 

 report. We parted " with warm expressions of regard." 



From this time, I heard nothing from Mr. Couthouy, till the 

 arrival of the squadron in '42. Within a few hours after land- 

 ing, I was told that he had published an article on coral islands. 

 I was disappointed, as 1 at once recalled the understanding with 

 which we separated ; but, as may be imagined, I was afterwards 

 not a little astonished to hear that he had advanced certain views 

 in the same, respecting the influence of temperature on their distri- 

 bution ; for in all our discussions abroad, notwithstanding our con- 

 fidence, he had never intimated to me that this idea occurred to 

 him till suggested in my Report. I waited, with the hope that 

 some friendly word from Mr. C. would greet my return, or that a 

 copy of his coral publication would be sent to me, or, if none were 

 on hand, that a few lines at least, in allusion to it, would be mailed 

 for a friend so intimate. But notwithstanding the "peculiar in- 

 timacy" between us. and the " warm expressions of regard" with 

 which we parted, and the understanding that we were to coope- 

 rate in our report on corals, not a syllable was received. I wait- 



* Mr. C. claims in his vindication that the whole subject of corals was in his 

 hands, much to my surprise, and no doubt to the surprise of all, who know that 

 ihe structure of coral islands is so far a. geological question as to constitute an im- 

 portant chapter in all geological treatises. The point was considered so far settled 

 at sea as never to have been mooted. 



