R. T Hill— The alleged Jurassic of Texas. 46 1 



nearest walcotti occurs in the very top of the Jura of Central 

 Volga stage, supposed by some to be similar to the Purbeck 

 in the upturn at Malm. The obscuration of a portion of the 

 sutures occurs over the most important part of the outer side, 

 and the structure of the abdomen, which is rounded and has no 

 keel, is not very consistent with the reference either to the Next- 

 mayria of the Jura or the so-called Neumayria of the Cretaceous. 

 Nevertheless it agrees better with those of the Jura than the 

 Cretaceous ones referred to the same genus by Nikitin." 



Whatever may be the range of this genus in Europe, the 

 writer is inclined to the belief, from the stratigraphy and asso- 

 ciation, that its occurrence in Arkansas is lowest Cretaceous, 

 and Professor Hyatt's opinion serves to strengthen the position 

 of the writer in his reticence in earlier papers in expressing a 

 more definite assignment of the Trinity beds before minutely 

 studying the accompanying faunas. The specimen was collected 

 in the banks of Town Creek, one mile southeast of Murfreesboro, 

 Arkansas. Named in honor of Mr. C. D. Walcott. 



Nowhere in these writings do I quote or have I quoted 

 D'Orbigny, and even my citation of a doubtful resemblance to 

 a species of his (which citation was entirely abandoned in the 

 revision of the species), cannot be interpreted as a quotation. 

 The very first sentence of the paragraph upon which Professor 

 Marcou constructs this charge distinctly shows that no identity 

 between the species was intended. Whether Mr. Marcou's 

 assertion that D'Orbigny's species came from the Jurassic and 

 not the Cretaceous is true or not, I do not know (for no copy 

 of D'Orbigny's Paleontologie Frangaise is accessible to me to 

 verify his references), but even if it is true, the matter is 

 entirely secondary to the entire tenor of my writings and was 

 set right by myself through its omission in the later publica- 

 tions. 



Professor Marcou states on the same page that "he has 

 shown with accuracy and details in the American Geologist, 

 Dec, 1889, . . . that the whole fauna without a single excep- 

 tion is composed of Jurassic fossils." I am perfectly aware of 

 the fact that in his paper cited,* he took the list of fossils 

 illustrated by me, species for species, and assertedf their iden- 

 tity or resemblance, according to his fancy, with some Jurassic 

 species of Europe, making them allied to forms from various 

 horizons of Europe, such as the " Portlandian," the "French 

 Jura," "Argovian," u Sequanian," the " Upper Lias," and the 

 " Kim.meridian." These mere assertions are all the " accuracy 

 and detail given." His identifications have so little basis of 

 fact that I merely pass them by unnoticed and do not yet 



* Jura Neocomian and Chalk of Arkansas ; by Jules Marcou, American Geolo- 

 gist, December, 1889. 

 \ Ibid., pp. 362-363. 



