188 
Gryph mu Pitch eri — Marcou. 
lias received appropriations from at least one of the scientific 
bodies in England, which will enable him to carry on still more 
accurate and extended observations hereafter. U A new era in 
seismic history began with the introduction of sub-marine teleg¬ 
raphy.’ 7 Mr. Forster has taken advantage of the possibilities of 
this new era, and it is to be hoped that those similarly situated 
will follow his commendable example. 
THE ORIGINAL LOCALITY OF THE GRYPHiEA PITCHER!, 
MORTON. 
By Jules Maucou. 
Professor Robert T. Hill, of the University of Texas, in 
Bulletin U. S. Geol. Survey , No. 45, “The present condition of 
Knowledge of the Geology of Texas/’ Washington, 1887 r 
(issued only in November, 1888,) says, at p. 46, “Dr. Samuel 
George Morton was the first to make allusion to the Cretaceous 
strata of Texas. He describes, from l the Calcareous platform 
of Red river,’ the fossil Gryphma Pitch eri, now accepted as the- 
most characteristic fossil of the typical Texas Cretaceous. 
This locality, we can only surmise, was the same as that now 
ca ! led the Staked Plains (Llano Estacado) region of Texas. 
The specimens were collected by army officers.” 
In his celebrated “Synopsis of the organic remains of the 
Cretaceous group of the United States,” Philadelphia, 1834, Dr. 
Morton says, at p. 55: “I received this fossil ( Gryphma pitcheri ,)• 
together with some others of great interest, from my friend, Z. 
Pitcher, M. D., of the United States army, who obtained it from 
the plain of the Kiamesllia, in Arkansas. I have seen others from 
the fall of the Yerdigris river, in the same territory.” 
As far back as 1860 I published a letter from Dr. Pitcher, in 
my “Lettres sur les Roches du Jura et leur distribution geo¬ 
graph ique dans les deux hemispheres,” p. 291, Paris, which 
seems to have escaped professor Hill’s notice, and which is so 
little known among American geologists, that it is best to have 
it reprinted. I shall give it without the suppression of the 
beginning, for it is the only document we possess, from the 
first geological explorer of that part of the Indian Territory 
