country. It seems now to be incumbent upon me to make a simple explanation of the facts. This I have done briefly, with confidence that the editor of The Popular Science Monthly, finding that he has been misled in the matter, will cheerfully correct the impression that his editorial will naturally make upon those unacquainted with the circumstances.
For more than twenty years the writer of this article has been engaged in conducting and supervising scientific research in various portions of the United States. During the history of this work there have been published under his auspices about two hundred volumes, as annual reports, monographs, bulletins, and other miscellaneous works. In all this body of literature there is very little of controversy. The hundreds of men employed have worked together in practical harmony. They have not always agreed, but agreement has been singularly common, and when disagreements have arisen they have been stated courteously and with little exhibition of temper. It is believed that no other publications of the same magnitude can be found in the world where so little controversy is shown and where disagreement is so uniformly courteous. There have been some controversies, but they have been confined to the journals, and have not found their way into the official publications. And the journalistic controversies have been very few; and in only two instances within my knowledge have they been bitter, the case of this book being one of them. The controversy on this subject has not appeared in the official publications, but only in the journals. It has been wholly unofficial.
Prof. Wright stands almost alone in his advocacy of a scientific doctrine. He has a few sympathizers, and some defenders of portions of his theory, but the great body of his work is repudiated by nearly every geologist in America, and especially by the professorial corps. The controversy which broke out in the journals was at the time unknown to the Director of the Geological Survey. He was away from home and an invalid. He had never by word or circumstance directed or suggested it. and knew nothing of it until after it had occurred. Most of the gentlemen who engaged in it and expressed their indignation at what they believed to be a pseudo-scientific work, were connected with universities and colleges, and were wholly out of the jurisdiction of the Geological Survey. Nor are they men accustomed to brook such dictation. Only one of the controversialists was a permanent member of the Geological Survey.
After the above statement, it only remains for the editor of The Popular Science Monthly to render that judgment which the facts demand.
