Dana, James D.; Corals and Coral Islands. 1st, American ed., New York, 1872. Quarto, pp. 398, colored frontispiece, 3 maps, numerous text illus.

Original wine colored beveled cloth with ruled borders and corner vignettes, gold cover vignette and decorative spine titles. Very light wear to boards and edges, owner's cataloging notation on title page and paste down, minor foxing to title page, text near fine, very good.
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As geologist and mineralogist for the Wilkes Expedition from 1838-1842, Dana produced an important series of reports on the Zoophytes, which proved remarkably popular. The above work which contains Danas observations of coral phenomena passed through three editions in his lifetime. Both Charles Darwin and Charles Lyell had written on coral islands, and Danas work was both informed by and developed in close collaboration with the ideas of these English naturalists. Danas theory emphasized oceanic subsidence and continental emergence through his study of coral formations in the Pacific. This proved to be his most important geological contribution to the Wilkes Expedition.