missed the
true solution. This passage is cited, both in the "Journal" and the
volume on Coral-reefs. Lyell, as we have seen, received the new theory
not merely ungrudgingly, but with the utmost enthusiasm.

In 1849 Darwin was gratified by receiving the support of Dana, after his
prolonged investigation in connection with the U.S. Exploring Expedition
("M.L." II. pages 226-8.), and in 1874 he prepared a second edition of
his book, in which some objections which had been raised to the theory
were answered. A third edition, edited by Professor Bonney, appeared in
1880, and a fourth (a reprint of the first edition, with introduction by
myself) in 1890.

Although Professor Semper, in his account of the Pelew Islands, had
suggested difficulties in the acceptance of Darwin's theory, it was
not till after the return of the "Challenger" expedition in 1875 that a
rival theory was propounded, and somewhat heated discussions were raised
as to the respective merits of the two theories. While geologists have,
nearly without exception, strongly supported Darwin's views, the notes
of dissent have come almost entirely from zoologists. At the height
of the controversy unfounded charges of unfairness were made against
Darwin's supporters and the authorities of the Geological Society, but
this unpleasant subject has been disposed of, once for all, by Huxley.
("Essays upon some Controverted Questions", London, 1892, pages 314-328
and 623-625.)

Darwin's final and very characteristic utterance on the coral-reef
controversy is found in a letter which he wrote to Professor Alexander
Agassiz, May 5th, 1881: less than a year before his death: "If I am
wrong, the sooner I am knocked on the head and annihilated so much the
better. It still seems to me a marvellous thing that there should not
have been much, and long-continued, subsidence in the beds of the great
oceans. I wish that some doubly rich millionaire would take it into his
head to have borings made in some of the Pacific and Indian atolls, and
bring home cores for slicing from a depth of 500 or 600 feet." ("L.L."
III. page 184.)

Though the "doubly rich millionaire" has not been forthcoming, the
energy, in England, of Professor Sollas, and in New South Wales of
Professor Anderson Stuart served to set on foot a project, which, aided
at first by the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and
afterwards taken up jointly by the Royal Society, the New South
Wales Government