he changes the whole truth. He may not have found any record of the 

 temperature taken ; I should be astonished if there was one ; but this is 

 a widely different thing from finding a record that none loas taken. Will 

 Mr. I). point out any record in this log-book, of Dr. Pickering and my- 

 self measuring the distance from the ocean to the lagoon at Wilson's 

 (or Peacock's) I. ? any of my being ordered to ascertain the height of 

 the mountain back of Tutuila, and of my clearing away a space on its 

 summit as a mark of having reached it? or of my having at Upolu, made 

 an excursion of over thirty miles in search of certain plains or savannas 

 supposed to exist somewhere, measuring the altitude of all the peaks on 

 the route, and making all possible observation on the topography of the 

 island — by special order, to the neglect and detriment of my own appro- 

 priate duties? any of my illness and detachment at Sydney, of my re- 

 joining at Oahu, of even my final detachment under orders to return 

 home at this latter port? Nay, farther, will Mr. Dana pretend that from 

 the day of our leaving the United States till that of my leaving the squad- 

 ron in Nov. 1840, there are a dozen instances in which any excursion, 

 duty, or experiment, made by any naturalist on board the Vincennes, is 

 noticed ever so remotely in this log-book, whose silence is so triumphantly 

 brought forward as conclusive testimony that my statements are untrue. 

 It seemed part of a regular system pursued towards the naturalists, to pre- 

 serve as complete a silence in regard to all their actions as though they had 

 formed no part of the expedition. Indeed, I was repeatedly told on this 

 subject, that the log-book was the record of the ship's business, not ours, 

 (the naturalists.) More worthless evidence on any point touching their 

 actions than Mr. D. has here paraded out, could not have been conjured 

 up, and with this remark I dismiss his note. 



One other note, p. 130, requires a few words. " Mr. Couthouy was with 

 the squadron only about one year and a half of the fmir occupied in the 

 cruise." For one who is so ready to accuse another of equivocation 

 where none can be proved, yet who certainly in his last quoted paragraph 

 on the record of the log-book, at least treads on the verge of it himself, 

 this inaccurate statement, whatever may be its motive, comes with a very 

 bad grace. I joined the squadron about the 8th of August, 1838. I 

 continued attached to the expedition until 3d November, 1840, when I 

 was ordered home from Oahu. 



A few words touching his remarks on my public journals, p. 136, and I 

 have done. That they are found, gives me no surprise whatever. Not- 

 withstanding that they could no where be discovered when called for in 

 evidence against Lieut. Wilkes, all who ever heard me allude to the matter 

 can testify that I always expressed my firm conviction that, they would be 

 forthcoming when it was no longer an object to have them missing. I 

 never lor a moment credited the idea of their being lost. That they con- 

 tain no theories or inferences from the facts recorded in their pages sub- 

 sequently to our departure from Callao, I am very certain, inasmuch as 

 after having had my own views therein contained, gravely quoted to me 

 by another as the result of his reflections; I determined, thenceforth, 

 while recording facts, to keep my deductions to myself till the time arrived 

 for me to publish them. But, if what Mr. D. asserts be true, and there is 

 " not a word on the influence of temperature on the growth of corals, nor 

 any thing bearing the most remotely on this subject," then I unhesitating- 

 ly affirm that they have been mutilated. There is, or was in the first vol- 



