235 



Blossom nearer its mouth, so that only in tlie upper part were the benches 

 built up to the highest level, while in the lower part the amount con- 

 tributed was insufficient to bring them up to similar altitudes. 



If the lalced Bean Blossom stood at different levels during the hiking 

 stage, we should expect to And somewhere in the valley a lower lying- 

 bench corresponding in elevation to the successive lake levels and adjacent 

 to th.e higher bench. Nothing of this sort was found. I am therefore in- 

 clined to attach more importance to the former interpretation, namely, 

 that irregularity of height above the valley floor is largely due to the 

 A'ariation in aniomit of the residual material lirought into the valley. The 

 tributaries bringing the least amount of material constructed the smaller 

 and lower benches. 



Another interesting feature is associated with two of the largest 

 northern tributaries to Bean Blossom, namely, Buck and Wolf creeks. 

 Beside the portion of each creek, wriggling across the valley bottom, are 

 rather long and narrow strips or delta-like accumulations similar in con- 

 tent to the benches already described, and extending from the valley slope 

 to within a few yards of the Bean Blossom channel which hugs the south 

 slope of its valley. The surface does not attain the characteristic flatness 

 of the rimming benches, but is slightly irregular in relief and increasingly 

 ■so towards the slope to which it is attached. This is especially true for 

 the Buck Creelv case. Init not for tlie Wolf Creek. The increasing irregu- 

 larity may lie in part due to the nearly complete burial of a projecting spur, 

 whose top is barely coated over with the delta deposits now spread almost 

 across the entire width of Bean Blossom: but it must be said that no out- 

 ■crops of limestone or sandstone, such as make the slopes of the valley, 

 have been discovered within its limits. On the other hand, the irregularity 

 of relief may have been produced by the piling up of the great load of 

 silt within Bean Blossom by the tril)Utary. but did not succeed in Ijuilding 

 it up to the lake level; in other words, it is an incomplete delta, or bar. 



The Wolf Creek case differs from the former only in having a moder- 

 ately flat top. or at least the higher flats on it attain al)out the same level, 

 thus suggesting that it was built iip nearer to water level, and hence more 

 even and uniform in relief. These dift'er from the rimming benches only in 

 that they c.rt<iid across tlie raUvj/ poor, while the former, lieing made by 

 smaller .streams close to each other, have built a series of small benches 

 or deltas which have become confluent, and hence continuous along the 

 zuilleij side. 



