64 0. Meyer — Species in the Southern Old-tertiary. 



might just as well have deduced a Vicksburgian or Jacksonian 

 age, but he had to corroborate his stated opinion. 



1850. M. Tuomey, " First biennial report of the geology of 

 Alabama," Tuscaloosa, 1850. This report contains some inter- 

 esting sentences, which show that the authority of Lyell must 

 have been very great. Tuomey says, p. 149 : " Sir Charles 

 Lyell has proved that the white limestone is newer than the 

 fossiliferous bed at Claiborne by showing that this bed, which 

 contains identical fossils, underlies, the bluff at St. Stephens. 

 This is certainly the case, for although this bed is not seen at 

 the base of the bluff, it is overlaid, as I have just stated, by 

 a yellow limestone, which is a prolongation of that at St. 

 Stephens." 



The following is of special interest, pp. 156, 157: ". . . 

 Mr. Conrad . . . referred the whole to the upper part of the 

 Cretaceous system, supposing, as I have said in another place, 

 that the Claiborne bed was newer, instead of being, as we now 

 know it, older than the white limestone. 



" It is curious to observe, after the difficulties have been 

 cleared away that surround pioneer explorations of every 

 description, how obvious everything appears and how difficult 

 it is to account for the mistakes of our predecessors. But in 

 the present instance it must be recollected that the Claiborne 

 fossiliferous bed is nowhere in absolute juxtaposition with the 

 overlying Orbitoides limestone, and even at St. Stephens I was 

 unable to detect it at the base of the bluff, although I examined 

 it at an unusually low state of the water. Nevertheless, the posi- 

 tion of the bed above the bluff, together with its dip, leaves no 

 doubt of its sinking below the white limestone." 



The reason why Tuomey could not detect this bed at the 

 base of St. Stephens bluff is very simple and was even known 

 to himself, as will be seen by the juxtaposition of the fol- 

 lowing two sentences. Lyell says in his essay, p. 15: "The 

 water of the river at the time of my visit was too high to 

 enable me to collect fossils from the beds at the base of the 

 cliff, but I was afterward furnished with them through the 

 kindness of Professor Brumby of Tuscaloosa." Tuomey says, 

 p. 158 : " This is the bed described in the preceding pages as 

 extending from Baker's Bluff to a point about half a mile 

 above St. Stephens ; and it was from this bed the fossils were 

 taken which were sent by Professor Brumby to Sir Charles 

 Lyell." 



So we see that Lyell's Claibornian bed at the base of St. 

 Stephens Bluff not only according to his own determinations 

 need not be Claibornian, but that it is also not at the base of 

 St. Stephens Bluff. 



From this time, however, the higher position of the Orbito- 



