74 THE NAUTILUS. 
See Ann. Mus. de Marseilles, Zool. t. II, p. 45, pl. 2, figs. 42-44, 
1885. 
EDITORIAL CORRESPONDENCE FROM ALABAMA. 
The following paragraphs from a letter received from the junior 
Editor of the Naurrius, written from Claiborne, Alabama, under 
date of Oct. 18th, will be of interest to our readers: 
«ok 7s > J 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 Gryphea, a Pecten resembling Camptonectes burlington- 
ensis, and several parts of a large Inoceramus 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. 
“Jt 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 Gryphea 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 fossils. They are well 
preserved and very interesting, many that I found being new to the 
Philadelphia collection, Cardita, Arca, Volutilithes, Pleurotoma, 
being some of the principal genera. I found the spire of a large 
and handsome conch, reminding one of JMelongena 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 
