156 The American Geologist. September, 1894 
was forming. The shore line of the Niobrara sea extended 
northeasterly from near the southwest corner of Iowa. From 
that shore line the sea spread away westward to beyond the 
Rooky mountains. The site of Saint Helena was many miles 
from shore, and was covered by moderately deep, clear w T ater. 
unpolluted by detritus washed in from the land. It was in 
this pure, clear sea that Textularia globulosa found the con- 
ditions most favorable to its existence. Here it multiplied 
beyond all calculation, here the individuals show all the 
symptoms of normal health and vigor, and here they attain 
their ideal symmetrical form. As, however, we approach the 
shore, it becomes evident that the conditions, so far as Textu- 
laria is concerned, became more and more adverse, for the chalk 
from Sioux City, Hawarden. Auburn, and other points east of 
the Sioux river, contains but few of the vigorous forms we 
have noted. On an average the textularians do not attain 
more than half the size reached by the larger individuals from 
Saint Helena. At Auburn, the most easterly point at which 
the chalk is known to occur in place, only the smallest forms 
of Textularia pygm&a occur. In this connection there is an- 
other very striking fact worthy of notice. The textularians 
from the more easterly localities are often very unsymmetri- 
cal and irregular in their mode of growth. It would seem 
that they were not only starved and stunted, but they were 
frequently deformed by the unfavorable environment prevail- 
ing in regions approximate to the shore. 
In some of the beds at Sioux City, which is one of the in- 
termediate points between Auburn and Saint Helena, the 
diminutive forms of Textularia are very numerous, but min- 
gled with them are a few conspicuously large individuals 
recalling those from the great chalk cliffs farther up the Mis- 
souri. There is one very marked difference, however, between 
these and the specimens from Saint Helena. Like the smaller 
individuals of the same region they are more or less distorted. 
What is more, the later formed chambers of the larger speci- 
mens often depart from the biserial type, and the shell may 
terminate in various irregular ways. There may be at last 
but a single series of cells, but it is more common to find 
three, four, or even five series. Sometimes groups of extra 
chambers protrude from the sides of the shell like unhealthy 
