the clique then controlling the collections of the Expedition ; T was shut 

 out from any share in the publication ; it was best to have no further con- 

 nection with me, as nothing more was to be gained by it. I can truly say, 

 I rejoice that this was not the true cause of Mr. D.'s conduct, though at 

 the time I could imagine no other, and presume also it will be admitted 

 that I have'given a very natural explanation, at all events a true one, of 

 the reasons why Mr. D. did not hear from me touching my publication. 

 Soon after this, the cares and duties of a new business so fully engrossed 

 my time and thoughts, as to leave me neither leisure nor inclination to 

 pursue my original intention of addressing Mr. D. a note of inquiry on 

 the subject, and I dismissed it as I supposed, forever from my mind. A 

 word more on this head and I have done with it. It was I that at the 

 meeting of the Association in Boston, nominated Mr. Dana for admission 

 to membership, prefacing the nomination with remarks expressive of all 

 I then felt toward him. Did this, I would ask, ' betoken a consciousness' 

 of having wronged him ? 



" What shall we say," exclaims Mr. D., and his coadjutor or familiar, 

 whose claim to a share in the paternity of his reply, appears more than 

 once in its pages in the significant we and us, — " what shall we say of the 

 honorable feelings which * * * * could trespass also on the department 

 of a friend, for he has given to the public numerous geological facts ob- 

 served abroad, besides those on coral islands? What of the honesty 

 which could find any excuse for transmitting home duplicate minutes of 

 his journal, contrary to express prohibition by the authority under which 

 we sailed ?" To the first of these questions I answer, it is untrue that I 

 have given to the public such numerous geological facts as Mr. D. there- 

 in represents me to have done, although as I shall prove, repeatedly urged 

 and even told it was my duty to do it, by men whose high sense of honor 

 and strict justice Mr. D. dare not question. I have never published a line 

 on geological subjects other than what is contained in my article on coral 

 formations, in which there is not a single fact but has a direct bearing on 

 that topic, and the publication of that article was entirely incidental and 

 unpremeditated, expanding under my hands to an extent far beyond my 

 original idea, which was simply to point out an erroneous statement by 

 Mr. Lyell, in regard to the structure of the reefs bordering Tahiti. One 

 remark suggested another, till, unconsciously to myself, the intended 

 note swelled into the essay which has given rise to this unpleasant con- 

 troversy. 



As to the honesty of my 'transmitting home duplicate minutes,' &c, I 

 will say that I acted under the best advice within reach, and were I so 

 circumstanced again I would do the same thing. Had not the great mass 

 of what was sent been of a most strictly private and personal character, 

 containing much on which no stranger's eye should rest, I should have 

 forwarded them to the department instead of to my family. I now rejoice 

 more than ever that this was not done. Cut off by circumstances from 

 any control over my MSS. there deposited, I could not suppose that the 

 unblushing violators of the sanctity of a private seal would respect it any 

 the more for being placed on a private journal ; and no man living would care 

 to have the pages, in which he had laid bare the inmost recesses and giv- 

 en vent to the deepest emotions of his heart, subjected to the criticisms 

 and heartless sneers of such as would in all probability have access to 

 them. 



