8 3 8 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of the Chinese loess, but it appears to be 

 not essentially unlike that of the Rhine, 

 which, as analyzed by Bischoff, contains a 

 larger proportion of alumina than the sam- 

 ples hitherto analyzed from Nebraska. Bis- 

 choff found in four analyses of Rhine loess : 



Dr. Hayden, in his "Final Report on 

 the Geology of Nebraska," gives, on page 

 12, two analyses of the loess from Hanni- 

 bal, Missouri, made by Dr. Lytton, as fol- 

 lows : in one hundred pai'ts, there were of 



Dr. Aughey, in his " Report on the 

 Superficial Deposits of Nebraska " (United 

 States Geological Survey, 1874), gives the 

 analyses of five samples of the Nebraska 

 loess taken from widely-separated sections, 

 showing the wonderful homogeneity of the 

 deposit over the large area which it covers 

 in that State estimated at not less than 

 fifty-eight thousand square miles. His anal- 

 yses are as follows : 



Insoluble (ili 

 ceous) matter 



Ferric oxide . . . 



Alumina 



Lime, carbonate 



Lime, phosph'te 



Magnesia, car- 

 bonate 



Potassa 



Soda 



Organic matter. 



Moisture 



Loss in analysis 



No. 1. 



81- 

 3- 



6- 

 3- 



Total 100-00 



No. 2. 



28 

 29 



K> 



06 

 08 

 54 



No. 3. 



81 

 3 



85 



83 



74 



6-03 



3-58 



1-31 



35 



14 



1-05 



1-09 



53 



No. 4. No. 5, 



81 

 3 



6 

 3 



32 

 86 

 74 

 09 

 59 



1-29 

 32 

 16 



106 



1-09 



47 



00-00 100-00 100-00 100-00 



It will be seen from these several anal- 

 yses that the loess of the Rhine and that 

 of the Republican and the upper and lower 

 Missouri are not chemically dissimilar. The 

 latter is thoroughly homogeneous and of 

 uniform color from whatever depth taken. 



Dr. Aughey says : " I have compared many 

 specimens taken three hundred miles apart, 

 and from the top and bottom of the de- 

 posits, and no difference could be detected 

 by the eye, or by chemical analysis. Over 

 eighty per cent of this deposit is finely- 

 comminuted silica. ... So fine, indeed, are 

 the particles of silica that its true character 

 can alone be detected by analysis or under 

 the microscope." The tendency, noted by 

 Mr. Williams, in the Chinese loess to crys- 

 tallize spontaneously, and form the cylin- 

 drical and spherical concretions which the 

 Chinese call "ginger-stones," is also no- 

 ticeable over all the loess-regions of the 

 West. Wherever the sod is broken or the 

 earth freshly disturbed from any cause, 

 whether by the plow, or "prairie-dogs," 

 these "ginger-stones" literally cover the 

 ground. This feature is presumably due to 

 the richness of the soil in the phosphates 

 and carbonates of lime, which constitute 

 about one tenth of the entire mass. 



In their structural as well as chemical 

 characteristics our Western loess-beds seem 

 to be identical with those of China. They 

 present, also, the same striking peculiari- 

 ties of landscape-contour, erosion-products, 

 and surpassing fertility, so well described 

 by Mr. Williams. The unique and often 

 exceedingly fantastic forms assumed by the 

 loess-bluffs wherever they have been sub- 

 ject to erosion, as along the Missouri and 

 lower Platte, have long excited the curiosity 

 of tourists. Indeed, so quaint and striking 

 are many of these natural carvings now 

 stately and now grotesque that it is not 

 easy on first acquaintance to accept them 

 as the products of natural causes merely, 

 and not rather as the gigantic labors of 

 past generations. In point of architectural 

 adaptability, too, these Nebraska bluffs are 

 the fellows of their Chinese congeners, and 

 fulfill the same generous function of afford- 

 ing cheap and healthful domiciles to whom- 

 soever will carve out their homes in them. 

 Many are the happy and well-to do families, 

 scattered over these fertile regions espe- 

 cially in Nebraska, Dakota, and Southwest- 

 ern Minnesota who have known no other 

 home since " coming West " than the 

 smoothly-hewed walls of the facile loess. 

 Nor, for ends of comfort, cleanliness, or 

 health, do they need to seek better homes 

 only at the behest of taste or fashion ; 

 though, as wealth increases, the American 

 squatter, unlike the Mongolian, soon builds 

 for himself a more pretentious dwelling, and 

 converts his old home into a stable or pig- 

 gery. I have sometimes had occasion to 

 seek shelter from a storm in one of these 

 " dug-outs," and in traveling have often 

 spent a night in them, and can testify as to 

 the excellent quarters they afford for both 

 man and beast. Like the " adobe " houses 

 of the Mexicans and Pueblo Indians, they 



