74 
THE NAUTILUS. 
See Ann. Mus. de Marseilles, Zool. t. II, p. 45, pi. 2, figs. 42-44, 
1885. 
EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE FROM ALABAMA. 
The following paragraphs from a letter received from the junior 
Editor of the Nautilus, written from Claiborne, Alabama, under 
date of Oct. 18th, will be of interest to our readers : 
“* * * I arrived here [Claiborne] last evening, seven days 
out from Selma. While waiting fora train at Selma, I took a stroll 
along the river. The steep bank of bluish gray clay, probably forty 
or fifty feet in height, tempted me to look for fossils. A small 
Ostrea, or Gryphcect, a Pecten resembling Camptonedes burlington- 
ensis, and several parts of a large Inoceramvs told me it was creta¬ 
ceous. But the specimens were too scarce and poor to warrant the 
expenditure of much time. From Selma I went by train to Catha¬ 
rine, and thence to Prairie Bluff. 
“ It is at the latter place that the collector of cretaceous fossils is 
in his element. The bluff is over one hundred feet high, and in one 
place slopes gradually, giving one a good opportunity to collect. 
Fine large specimens of Exogyra costata and Gryphcect, vesicularis 
were abundant. The shells of the latter were unusually thick and 
the lower-valve very convex. Perfect specimens of Plicatula urti- 
cosa were also common. Finely preserved casts and, in many cases, 
the shells of numerous species of Gastropods, were abundant. Ex¬ 
ceptionally numerous were: Anchura spirata, Turritella encrinoides, 
Rostellites texturatus, Pyropsis sp.,Natica abyssina and Lunatia Halli. 
Of the Cephalopods, I found Nautilus DeKayi, Baculites ovatus and 
Ammonites sp., in fair numbers. 
“At Matthew’s Landing, ten miles below Prairie Bluff, is the first 
good exposure of strata containing Eocene fos.-ils. They are well 
preserved and very interesting, many that I found being new to the 
Philadelphia collection, Cardita, Area, Volutilithes, P/eurotoma, 
being some of the principal genera. I found the spire of a large 
and handsome conch, reminding one of Melougena corona, except 
that the projections on the angles of the whorls are nodulose instead 
of spinose, but I looked in vain for a perfect specimen. 
On the west bank of the river, a short distance below Clifton, 
are high bluffs of indurated blue clay, and I found the first (and 
