Gryphcea Pitcheri—Mar co.u . 189 
mailed territory of the Choctaw nation, directly west of the state 
of Arkansas. 
Having learned through my friend Capt. A. W. Whipple, 
(since Major-General) that Dr. Pitcher was living at Detroit, 
where Whipple was then detailed on the Great Lakes surveys, I 
sent him a copy of my “Geology of North America, v contain¬ 
ing excellent figures and descriptions of the Gryphcea pitcheri, 
found by me on an affluent of the False Washita river, during 
our explorations and surveys, under command of Lieutenant A. 
W. Whipple, for a Pacific railroad by the 35th parallel, asking 
his opinion, and also to tell me the exact locality where he 
first found his Gryphcea pitcheri. Here is the correspondence: 
Detroit, Mich. Oct. 14, 1859. 
Professor Jules Marcou, University of Zurich, Switzerland. 
My Dear Marcou: * * * The enclosed letter from our friend Dr. 
Pitcher will give you truly the chief cause of my delay in writing; for 
often and often I have thought-well in a day or two I shall get an answer 
to your queries of April 5th and then I shall have something interesting 
to communicate. The Dr. has promised often and to-day I get his letter. 
* * 
I remain, my dear Marcou, sincerely your friend 
A. W. W HirPLE, 
U. S. Topographical Engineer. 
Detroit, October 12th, 1859. 
Uapt. A. W. Whipple, U. S. Topographical Engineer. 
Bear Sir: Your note of the 2nd of May was left at my residence during 
my absence in the South, and with it a letter from your friend professor 
Marcou.' My return, though not long delayed, brought with it so many 
professional engagements, that I was obliged temporarily to lay it aside, 
•where it was forgotten. I hope this negligence of mine will not have 
-effected you in the estimation of that distinguished savant. 
‘’The Kiamechia” is a small stream which empties into the Red riyer a 
few miles above Fort Towson. My little fossil which has acquired so much 
consequence from the discussions into which it has been drawn by scien¬ 
tific names, was picked up on the plains drained by this 1 ttle rivulet, 
through which our troops were marking out a road from Fort Smith to 
Fort Towson, in 1883. 
Having a few years before this, in company with a detachment of troops, 
•descended the Alabama and ascended the Red river to Nachitoches, I was 
observant of the geology of their banks, and on my return to Philadelphia, 
gave notice to my valued friend Morton, that the formations related to the 
Mauvaises Terres, were traceable from Mount Vernon by the route I had 
just passed over and from the Red river to Nebraska, What little knowl¬ 
edge I then had of Nebraska had been obtained from officers of the 6th 
