The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-12-16
Beautiful Shells That

also a very clear and accurate descrip- tion of the blum itydls.
 While the great majority, probably four fifths, of the new forms, were from the seventeen feet thick stratum of ferruginous sand, yet the beds above and below 1t are not without interest. since they also hold great number, but not so great a variety of fossils, About the time here mentioned. an- other geologist of Philadelphia, Mir. T. A. Conrad, visited Claiborne in person, and with the assistance of Judge Tait, made large collections of the shells which he described and illustrated In a series of pamphlets entitled, Fossil Shells of the Tertiary Formations of North America" also published fin Philadelphia, almost contemporaneous- Iy with Lea's Contributions. As both authors described the same shells, to which, however, they gave different names, there naturally arose confusion which has not quite disappeared to this day. and the student of Alabama Ge- ology must learn two names each for nearly all the Claiborne shel1ls.
 It must not be thought that Lea and Conrad described all the new species occurring at Claiborne. During the eighties, while the Alabama Geological Survey was engaged in working out the details of the tertiary formations 1A tAAS epAdN1s lAA 80 CoAAGGlsGh1 WEk C made of the Claiborne materal. and a number of new forms were discovered by Mr. T. H. Aldrich of Birmingham, Mfr. Otto Meyer, and by Mr. D. W. Langdon of the Geological Survey. These new forms. along with others from different horizons of the Alabama tertiary, were figured on nine plates and together with descriptions were published as Bulletin No. l, of the Ala bama Geological Survey. This buIle- tin was the gift of Mir, Aldrich.
 otFser Unusunl Deposits.
 IL is a matter of in'arest that while the beds both above and below the fer ruRinous sand at Claiborne Are of wide extent, being found in States. both east and west of Alabama, so far as yet known the ferruginoug sand with its beautiful fossils has not been ident- lied beyond the limits of Alabama. It is. however, known to occur at num- Der of localities in Clarke, Choctaw, and Washington Counties.
 At the time when this bed was be- ing deposited, it seems that the copdi- tions which favored such luxuriance of marine animal life as is illustrated in sands, were somewhat Restricted, ali the occurrences ofthese sands as yet known being within an area of perhaps 500 to 1000 square miles.
 Alabama seems to have been similar ly favored at other periods of the ter tiary times, for the shelf beds at Bells Landing on the Alabama, and Tusca- homa on the Tombigbee; at Weeds Bluff on the Tombighee: at Nanafaiia on the Rombigbee, and Blacks and Gullettes Bluffs on the Alabamaa at Mathews Landing ou the Al@baoH; and at Black Bluff on the Tonbfgbee. all representing deposits older than the Claiborne sands. exhibit richness of marine fife almost eduailing that Rt Claiborne.
 While these lower beds are more widely distributed than are the Claib- orne sands, yet for the abundance and variety of the forms and the perfection of preservation of the shells, the oc- currences within the drainage areas of the Alabama and Tombigbee Rivers far surpass all others. in this and neigh boring States.