124 IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



tion 19. From this point they trend in a northeasterly 

 direction across the southern portion of section 19, and 

 bending further to the north they cross the northwest 

 corner of section 20. Otter creek passes through a gap in 

 these hills near the southwest corner of section 17. From 

 here the ridges extend in a general northerly direction, 

 bending alternately eastward and westward, near the w^est 

 side of sections 17, 8, and 5. They enter Carroll township 

 near the southeast corner of section 31. Continuing 

 northward with a slight inclination towards the west for a 

 distance of five miles, they merge into the morainic hills of 

 the pro])er lowan drift plain near the southwest corner of 

 section 6. 



This Toledo lobe covers the greater portion of Howard 

 township, a small corner of Carlton, a little more than the 

 east half of the township of Toledo and a narrow strip 

 from the west side of the townships of Otter Creek and 

 Carroll. It is about four and one-half miles in width at 

 the southern extremity, and nearly eight miles across at 

 the north, wdiere it leaves the main sheet. It embraces an 

 area of over 31,000 acres. 



Over the southern portion of this lobe the surfiice is 

 that of a billowy prairie. The elevations seldom exceed 

 twenty feet above the broad channels of the streams A 

 thin covering of low^an drift occurs over the lower lands, 

 and in places is found even on the tops of the subdued 

 hills. This drift is of the typical lowan character. It is 

 3^ellowish brown in color. The iron which it contains is 

 not fully oxidized, and the calcareous matter is not 

 leached from the surface. It carries but few pebbles or 

 small bowlders as compared with the Kansan, and of these 

 there is but a small percentage of dark colored traj) or 

 green-stones. 



Over this region the low^an drift is usually concealed 

 beneath a covering of loess, which varies from a foot or two 

 to several feet in thickness. Such a loess-covered bed of 

 lowan drift is w-ell exposed along the roadside between 

 sections 18 and 19 of Otter Creek township, and again 

 about the middle of the line which separates sections 33 



