On coral reefs, volcanoes, gods, and patriotic geology; Or, James Dwight Dana assembles the pacific basin

Pacific Historical Review

Volumn 79, Issue 1, 2010, Pages 23-49

  Igler, David ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CORAL REEF; EXPLORATION; LANDFORM; VOLCANO;

PACIFIC OCEAN;

ANTHOZOA;

EID: 75849143082     PISSN: 00308684     EISSN: 15338584     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1525/phr.2010.79.1.23     Document Type: Review

References (122)

1. The scattering of the islands, according to some sources, also explained the political divisions and conficts between the island communities prior to the 1800s. On the Maui stories, see Martha Beckwith, Hawaiian Mythology (Honolulu, 1970), 226-237;
2. Katherine Luomala, Voices on the Wind: Polynesian Myths and Chants (Honolulu, 1986), 85-98;
3. Martha Beckwith, ed. and trans., The Kumulipo: A Hawaiian Creation Chant (Honolulu, 1951), 128-136.
4. On the place of "myths" and "legends" in indigenous history and thought, see Jocelyn Linnekin, "Contending Approaches," in Donald Denoon, ed., The Cambridge History of Pacific Islanders (Cambridge, U.K., 1997), 3-36.
5. Maui's fishing exploits have informed and entertained audiences throughout Polynesia for thousands of years. See Alex Calder, Jonathan Lamb, and Bridget Orr, eds., Voyages and Beaches: Pacific Encounters, 1769-1840 (Honolulu, 1999), 46-48.
6. Unless otherwise noted explicitly, "Dana" in this article refers to James Dwight Dana. For Dana's depiction of Pacific islanders' religion and conversion attempts by missionaries, see Dana to Harriet Dwight Dana, Dec. 1, 1839, and May 27, 1841, both in Dana Family Papers, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.; James Dwight Dana, "The Ways of the Feejees Half a Century Ago" (1843), in Daniel Coit Gilman, The Life of James Dwight Dana: Scientific Explorer, Mineralogist, Geologist, Zoologist, Professor in Yale University (New York, 1899), 131-139. All letters cited here and below come from boxes 1 and 2, series 1 (James Dwight Dana's part of the collection), Dana Family Papers.
7. On the "historical myth" of enduring conflict between "geology and Genesis," see Martin J. S. Rudwick, Bursting the Limits of Time: The Reconstruction of Geohistory in the Age of Revolution (Chicago, 2005), 115-118;
8. Rudwick, Worlds Before Adam: The Reconstruction of Geohistory in the Age of Reform (Chicago, 2008), 563- 565; and many of his other works.
9. James D. Dana, Geology (New York, 1849), 10. The digitized version of Dana's Geology, as well as the entire collection of U.S. Exploring Expedition (U.S. Ex. Ex.) publications, can be viewed at the Smithsonian Institution Libraries Digital Collections, online at www.sil.si.edu/ digitalcollections/usexex/, accessed Jan. 5, 2005.
10. On nineteenth-century geology and the work of naturalist-explorers, see Mott T. Green, Geology in the Nineteenth Century: Changing Views of a Changing World (Ithaca, N.Y., 1982), 132-143;
11. Michael L. Smith, Pacific Visions: California Scientists and the Environment, 1850-1915 (New Haven, Conn., 1987), 14-16;
12. and Aaron Sachs, The Humboldt Current: Nineteenth-Century Exploration and the Roots of American Environmentalism (New York, 2006).
13. On this theme of national expansion and the place of the Pacific and Asia, see Henry Nash Smith, Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and Myth (Cambridge, Mass., 1950), 19-34. I acknowledge the point suggested here made by one anonymous referee.
14. On the U.S. Ex. Ex., see Nathaniel Philbrick, Sea of Glory: America's Voyage of Discovery, The U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842 (New York, 2003); William Stanton, The Great United States Exploring Expedition (Berkeley, 1975);
15. Herman J. Viola and Carolyn Margolis, eds., Magnificent Voyagers: The U.S. Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842 (Washington, D.C., 1985);
16. and Barry Alan Joyce, The Shaping of American Ethnography: The Wilkes Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842 (Lincoln, Nebr., 2001).
17. Also included among the "Scientifcs" - a term often used by Lt. Charles Wilkes and others-were the artists Alfred T. Agate and Joseph Drayton. Other expeditions also included scientists, but seven was a fairly large complement.
18. On scientifc voyages in general and U.S. use of them in the mid-nineteenth century, see Helen M. Rozwadowski, Fathoming the Ocean: The Discovery and Exploration of the Deep Sea (Cambridge, Mass., 2005), 46-62,
19. and Smith, Pacific Visions, 12-16.
20. These vessels included the fagship Vincennes (war sloop; 700 tons), Peacock (war sloop; 559 tons), Porpoise (brig; 224 tons), Relief (storeship; 468 tons), Sea Gull (tender; 110 tons), and Flying Fish (tender; 96 tons). Wilkes purchased the Oregon (brig; 250 tons) while at Astoria to replace the shipwrecked Peacock.
21. On Wilkes, see Philbrick, Sea of Glory;
22. Joye Leonhart, "Charles Wilkes: A Biography," and E. Jeffrey Stann, "Charles Whiles as Diplomat," both in Viola and Margo-lis, eds., Magnificent Voyagers, 189-204, 205-226.
23. Philbrick, Sea of Glory, 331-333.
24. After years of debate and deliberations, the Smithsonian Institution was created by an act of Congress in 1846. Materials gathered by the scientists aboard the U.S. Ex. Ex. constituted the Smithsonian's main collection.
25. For this material, see Smithsonian Institution Libraries Digital Collections, online at www.sil.si.edu/digitalcollections/usexex/index.htm, accessed Jan. 5, 2005.
26. On the courtmartial charges against Wilkes, see Philbrick, Sea of Glory, 303- 330.
27. Midshipman William Reynolds wrote: "It seems to me that our path through the Pacific is to be marked in blood." William Reynolds, The Private Journal of William Reynolds, United States Exploring Expedition, 1838-1842, eds. Nathaniel Philbrick and Thomas Philbrick (New York, 2004), 237.
28. The best firsthand account of these incidents is ibid., 182-199.
29. Vendovi's crime was unrelated to these incidents. He was accused of leading an assault on the American ship Charles Dagget in 1834 that left ten crew members dead. New York Herald, June 11, 26, 1842;
30. T. D. Stewart, "The Skull of Vendovi: A Contribution of the Wilkes Expedition to the Physical Anthropology of Fiji," Archaeology and Physical Anthropology in Oceania, 13 (1978), 204-214.
31. For a fascinating historical treatment of Vendovi's skull, see Ann Fabian, "One Man's Skull: A Tale from the Sea-Slug Trade," online at www.common-place.org, 8 (Jan. 2008), accessed Aug. 31, 2007.
32. On the region of Dana's birth, see Mary Ryan, Cradle of the Middle Class: The Family in Oneida County, New York, 1790-1865 (Cambridge, U.K., 1981).
33. For biographical information on Dana, see Gilman, The Life of James Dwight Dana, 3-20;
34. M. L. Prender-gast, "James Dwight Dana: Problems in American Geology" (Ph.D dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1978);
35. Daniel E. Appleman, "James Dwight Dana and Pacific Geology," in Viola and Margolis, eds., Magnificent Voyagers, 89-90;
36. and James H. Natland, "James Dwight Dana and the Beginnings of Planetary Volcanology," American Journal of Science, 297 (1997), 317-319.
37. James Dwight Dana, "On the Conditions of Vesuvius in July, 1834," American Journal of Science and Arts, 1st ser., 27 (1835), 281-288.
38. Dana to Harriet Dwight Dana, May 17, 1838, in Dana Family Papers.
39. Rudwick, Worlds Before Adam, 563-565.
40. See J. R. McNeill, "Of Rats and Men: A Synoptic Environmental History of the Island Pacifc," Journal of World History, 5 (1994), 299-349;
41. Gary Y. Okihiro, Island World: A History of Hawai'i and the United States (Berkeley, 2008).
42. Dana to John Dana, Sept. 16, 1839, Dana Family Papers.
43. David Quammen, The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions (New York, 1996), 53.
44. Charles Lyell offered a brief account of Charles Darwin's fndings in Charles Lyell, Principles of Geology (3 vols., London, 1830-1833).
45. Dana carried at least one of these volumes with him on the voyage, and he received a copy of Lyell, Elements of Geology (London, 1838) during the stopover in Valparaiso, Chile.
46. Dana may have also chanced across a newspaper summary of Darwin's island subsidence theory once the U.S. Ex. Ex. reached Australia. "The [newspaper] paragraph threw a food of light over the subject and called forth feelings of peculiar satisfaction, and of gratefulness to Mr. Darwin," Dana wrote three decades later in Dana, Corals and Coral Islands (New York, 1872), 7.
47. On this chain of events, see David R. Stoddart, "'This Coral Episode'- Darwin, Dana, and the Coral Reefs of the Pacifc," in Roy MacLeod and Philip F. Rehbock, eds., Darwin's Laboratory: Evolutionary Theory and Natural History in the Pacific (Honolulu, 1994), 22-26,
48. and Prendergast, "James Dwight Dana," 165.
49. Appleman, "James Dwight Dana and Pacific Geology," 91.
50. R. D. Keynes, ed., Charles Darwin's "Beagle" Diary (Cambridge, U.K., 1988), 418.
51. Regarding the work of a field geologist, Dana wrote: "Geology is eminently an out-door science; for strata, rivers, oceans, mountains, valleys, volcanoes cannot be taken into a recitation-room. Sketches and sections serve a good purpose in illustrating the objects which the science treats, but they do not set aside the necessity of seeing the objects themselves." James Dwight Dana, The Geological Story Briefy Told: An Introduction to Geology for the General Reader and for Beginners in the Science (New York, 1875), iii.
52. On the status of early nineteenth-century geological feldwork, see Martin J. S. Rudwick, The Great Devonian Controversy: The Shaping of Scientific Knowledge among Gentlemanly Specialists (Chicago, 1985), 37-41,
53. and Green, Geology in the Nineteenth Century, 132-14 3.
54. Dana to Edward C. Herrick, Nov. 22, 1838, Dana Family Papers.
55. Dana did not entirely discount the signifcance of oceanic forces on island shorelines; see Dana, Geology, 379-393.
56. Ibid., 388-389.
57. Charles Darwin, The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, eds. Frederick Burk-hardt and Sydney Smith (10 vols., Cambridge, U.K., 1985-1994), 4: 290.
58. Gilman, The Life of James Dwight Dana, 93.
59. Sachs, The Humboldt Current, 12.
60. James D. Dana, "On American Geological History," American Journal of Science and Arts, 2nd ser., 22 (1856), 329-330.
61. Beckwith, Hawaiian Mythology, 168-179.
62. Dana, Geology, 17 2 - 17 3 .
63. Ibid., 175-176.
64. Ibid., 176.
65. James D. Dana, "Origin of the Grand Outline Features of the Earth," American Journal of Science and Arts, 2nd ser., 3 (1847), 398.
66. During the voyage his correspondence contains repeated reference to volcanic activity and earthquakes throughout the Pacifc. See Dana to Benjamin Silliman, Sept. 12, 1839, and Dana to Herrick, Nov. 30, 1840, both in Dana Family Papers.
67. On the "Ring of Fire," see Philip Kearey and Frederck J. Vine, Global Tectonics (Oxford, U.K., 1990), and online at vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/ Glossary/PlateTectonics, accessed Jan. 15, 2005.
68. Dana, "Origin of the Grand Outline Features of the Earth," 398.
69. Rudwick, Bursting the Limits of Time, 573-578;
70. Charles Coulston Gillispie, ed., Dictionary of Scientific Biography (18 vols., New York, 1973), 2: 552-557.
71. Dana, Geology, 156. Despite the great importance he placed on the Hawaiian chain, Dana only spent three months among the islands and a mere fve days on the volcanically active island of Hawai'i. While Dana may have relished the opportunity to collect more extensive data (and participate in Wilkes's ascent of the 13,679-foot summit of Mauna Loa to establish the volcano's frst observatory), he was later able to draw upon the feldwork of Charles Pickering, Joseph Drayton, and Wilkes.
72. Mauna Loa is over fve and a half miles high if measured from the sea foor, higher than Mount Everest. See Philbrick, Sea of Glory, 243.
73. Shield volcanoes usually erupt non-explosively; instead, they pour out large amounts of liquid lava during a slow process of eruption. The term "shield" derives from shape of the mountain, which resembles the rounded design of a warrior's shield. Dana described the unique appearance of Hawaiian volcanoes in Dana, Geology, 168.
74. Daniel E. Appleman, "James D. Dana and the Origins of Hawaiian Volcanology: The U.S. Exploring Expedition in Hawai'i, 1840-41," in Robert W. Decker, Thomas L. Wright, and Peter H. Stauffer, eds., Volcanism in Hawai'i (2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1987), 2: 1615-1617.
75. Dana, Geology, 280.
76. David A. Clague and G. Brent Dalrymple, "The Hawaiian-Emperor Volcanic Chain," in Decker, Wright, and Stauffer, eds., Volcanism in Hawai'i, 5-13.
77. According to two leading volcanologists, "the distinctive northwest-southeast alignment of the Hawaiian chain was known to the early Hawaiians. Their legends clearly reveal that they recognized that the islands are progressively younger from the northwest to the southeast." See G. R. Foulger and Don L. Anderson, "The Emperor and Hawaiian Volcanic Chains: How well do they ft the plume hypothesis?" online at www.MantlePlumes.org, accessed Jan. 15, 2005.
78. For this specific retelling of the legend, see Betty Fullard-Leo, "The Goddess Pele," online at www.coffeetimes.com/pele.htm, accessed Jan. 15, 2005.
79. J. Tuzo Wilson, "A Possible Origin of the Hawaiian Islands," Canadian Journal of Physics, 41 (1963), 863-870.
80. Ibid., 867, 869, 863;
81. Clague and Dalrymple, "The Hawaiian-Emperor Volcanic Chain," 5.
82. Dana, like all nineteenth-century geologists, believed the continents "were to a great extent fxed in the earliest periods of the condition and nature of the earth's crust." Dana, Geology, 436.
83. Wilson, "A Possible Origin of the Hawaiian Islands," 866, 867.
84. Dana did not realize that the age of volcano extinction also related to the age of island formation. In fact, he rejected this idea proposed by his colleague J. P. Couthouy. See Appleman, "James Dwight Dana and Pacific Geology," 112.
85. Wilson, "A Possible Origin of the Hawaiian Islands," 867.
86. James D. Dana, "On the Volcanoes of the Moon," American Journal of Science and Arts, 2nd ser., 2 (1846), 343.
87. Ibid., 349;
88. Appleman, "James D. Dana and the Origins of Hawaiian Volcanology," 1611;
89. James H. Natland, "At Vulcan's Shoulder: James Dwight Dana and the Beginnings of Planetary Volcanology," American Journal of Science, 297 (1997), 337-338.
90. The best testament to this geological mainstream in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries appears in Rudwick, Bursting the Limits of Time, and Rudwick, Worlds Before Adam.
91. See George Forster, A Voyage Round the World, eds. Nicholas Thomas and Oliver Berghof (1777; Honolulu, 2000);
92. Martin Fichman, An Elusive Victorian: The Evolution of Alfred Russel Wallace (Chicago, 2004);
93. Donald Worster, A River Running West: The Life of John Wesley Powell (New York, 2001);
94. and Stephen J. Pyne, How the Canyon Became Grand: A Short History (New York, 1998).
95. In the mid-nineteenth century Alfred Russel Wallace discovered a zoogeo-graphical boundary line running through Indonesia that separated Asiatic organisms from Australian species.
96. Throughout his teaching career, Dana entertained his students with stories drawn from his Pacific explorations. See James Gregory Moore, King of the 40th Parallel: Discovery in the American West (Stanford, Calif., 2006), 15, 19.
97. Tom Chaffin, Pathfinder: John Charles Frémont and the Course of American Empire (New York, 2002), 246-247.
98. Led by Lt. George Emmons, this group included Dana, William Rich, William Brackenridge, Titian Peale, Alfred Agate, Henry Eld, and Harold Colvocoresses.
99. Appleman, "James Dwight Dana and Pacific Geology," 114.
100. Dana, Geology, 613.
101. Ibid., 613, 612-613, 669, 673, 675, 676, 678.
102. Ibid., 674; emphasis added.
103. Within four weeks of his return Dana was engaged to Henrietta Silliman, the daughter of his Yale mentor.
104. He also assumed editorial duties for the American Journal of Science in 1846 and became Yale's Silliman Professor of Natural History and Geology in 1850.
105. Dana, "On American Geological History," 307; emphasis in original.
106. Ibid., 311; emphases in original.
107. Ibid., 320, 329-330.
108. Ibid., 330.
109. The place of religion in Dana's work received mixed reactions from some of the world's leading scientists. T. H. Huxley, one of Darwin's staunchest defenders, observed that "Dana wrote with one eye on fact and the other on Genesis." Alexander von Humboldt found it difficult to understand the increasing role of religion in American science. Humboldt considered Dana's work on the Pacific "the most splendid contribution to science of the present day," but he also feared the appearance of a theology-based geology in the United States. Humboldt reportedly stated "that it was not safe for a man to pursue geology in the United States, for fear of falling within the ban of the Church." Dana, for his own part, never feared falling within the ban of church, state, or institutional science, and he maintained cordial correspondence throughout the years with many of his presumed critics across the Atlantic, including Charles Darwin. See Robert H. Dott, Jr., "James Dwight Dana's Old Tectonics: Global Contraction Under Divine Direction," American Journal of Science, 297 (1997), 307;
110. S. F. B. Morse to Dana, Aug. 25, 1856, Dana Family Papers; and Gilman, The Life of James Dwight Dana, 185.
111. Smith, Virgin Land, 23.
112. Dana, "On American Geological History," 334.
113. As a sign of respect for Arnold Guyot, Dana named his third son Arnold Guyot Dana. For Dana's correspondence with Guyot, see Gilman, The Life of James Dwight Dana, 325-332.
114. Arnold Guyot, The Earth and Man: Lectures on Comparative Physical Geography (Boston, 1853), 297-298.
115. Sachs, The Humboldt Current, 20.
116. William H. Goetzmann, Exploration and Empire: The Explorer and the Scientist in the Winning of the American West (New York, 1966), 232.
117. Smith, Pacific Visions, 14.
118. Dana never returned to the Pacific as a researcher. He suffered a mental breakdown shortly after the publication of "On American Geological History," likely a result of his frenetic scholarly pace during the previous decade. He continued teaching and writing for three more decades, although the pace of his scholarship slowed and its geographic frame became more local and continental, with brief interludes of writing about religion and science.
119. Natland, "At Vulcan's Shoulder," 336-337.
120. Dana paid for the printing of an additional twenty-fve copies, many of which he gave to friends and colleagues.
121. Gilman, The Life of James Dwight Dana, 145.
122. For the inscription containing this information, see Gilman, The Life of James Dwight Dana, 143.