To His EXCELLENCY, E. A. O'NEAL, GOVERNOR OF ALABAMA. 



Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith Bulletin No. 1 

 of the Geological Survey, which is the first contribution toward a work 

 undertaken by Mr. Truman H. Aldrich, illustrating the Paleontology of 

 the Tertiary Formation in Alabama. This work, which is to be the gift 

 of Mr. Aldrich to the State of Alabama, will embrace figures and de- 

 scriptions of all the shells found in the Tertiary deposits of the State, 

 including reproductions of the figures already published elsewhere, and 

 when finished, will be one of the most complete works of the kind pub- 

 lished by any State. 



In the preparation of this Bulletin, Mr. Aldrich has personally gone 

 over the greater part of the ground, and has collected a large part of the 

 material himself ; he is thus able to give to each species, not only its lo- 

 cality, but also its exact place in the stratigraphical scale. 



The work is therefore, not a bare description of new species, of no 

 interest or value except to the paleontologist, but it illustrates very fully 

 the distribution of the species both in time and space ; and in order that 

 these relations may be more clearly set before the reader, I have added 

 an extract from my forthcoming Geological Report, giving a summary of 

 the lithological and stratigraphical features and subdivisions of the vari- 

 ous deposits which make up the Tertiary Formation of Alabama. 



The lower or Jackson division of the White Limestone in the State of 

 Mississippi contains fossils in a much better state of preservation than 

 any as yet found at corresponding horizons in Alabama. For this rea- 

 son, some of the figures and descriptions in the following Bulletin refer 

 to shells actually collected in Mississippi, though probably also occurring 

 within the limits of Alabama. 



That part of the Bulletin which bears the name of Dr. Otto Meyer, 

 including the drawing of the three plates illustrating his article, has been 

 furnished by the author free of all charge, and our acknowledgments are 

 hereby made to him for his valuable contribution. 



Mr. Aldrich not only furnishes gratuitously the text of his article, but 

 also provides at his own expense the entire printed edition of the plates 



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