Kansas During the Ice Age. 37 



them, is convinced that there are no true moraines in this state. 

 Some were reported west of Washington, but examination 

 proved that there was only a thin scattering of bowlders over 

 Dakota sandstone. West of Wamego and northeast of St. 

 George are found bowldery knolls which might easily be mis- 

 taken for a subdued form of a marginal moraine, but the 

 bowlders rest on clays which are probably Carboniferous. 

 The knolls have been brought out by differential erosion. The 

 wide bowldery strip on the divide south of Wamego suggests a 

 concentration of bowlders near the edge of the ice, somewhat 

 as a moraine is formed, but there is no accumulation of till 

 underneath. Southwest of Topeka a few miles are a few 

 bowldery ridges lying just east of Burnett's Mound and trend- 

 ing southeast. These have been quite persistently called mo- 

 raines, but they are found to consist of stratified gravel, and a 

 short distance farther south they become continuous with 

 similar deposits lying in distinct channels. A bowldery hill 

 near Clinton, which has been called a moraine, proved to have 

 a similar origin. 



Stream Deposits. This naturally leads us to consider 

 stream deposits. No esker or kame deposits have been found 

 in Kansas. All such stratified beds lie in channels and not on a 

 ground moraine or till sheet. 



The stream deposits associated with the glacial deposits of 

 Kansas may be classified as follows : 



1. Higher-level chert gravels. 



2. Lower-level chert gravels. 



3. Drift-filled channels, which are of three distinct kinds, viz. : 



(1) Channels filled with local drift. 



(2) Channels filled with northern drift, overridden by the 

 ice. 



(3) Channels beyond the limits of the ice. 



Higher-level Chert Gravels (Preglacial) . One approaching 

 the region from the west would first note a drop toward the east 

 in the general upland surface. This is quite well marked and is 

 covered with chert fragments. This is easily traced to the de- 

 composition of several strata of flinty limestone in the lower 

 part of the Permian. Because this chert breaks in compara- 

 tively small fragments it has been carried far eastward by 

 various streams. As this material is insoluble and virtually 

 indestructible, it forms a very perfect protection to the under- 



