42 Kanso^s Academy of Science. 



the character of the underlying Carboniferous shales. It caps 

 some of the highest points found, and these are often near the 

 Missouri, south of wide bottom lands. The most natural ex- 

 planation of these facts is that the deposit is mostly of Eolian 

 origin. Possibly some of its lower portion may have accumu- 

 lated as dust upon the glacier ice before it disappeared. This 

 higher loess is not marked on the map, but may be considered 

 as covering the till generally. It is not recognizable elsewhere. 



A similar deposit occurs under very different relations at 

 lower levels along the streams, especially near the larger ones. 

 It may reach a depth sometimes of 75 or 100 feet. It passes 

 into sand at lower levels. 



It is typically shown at Kansas City, Kan. Its lower limit is 

 about 25 feet above the present streams. Its upper surface is 

 terracelike, rising at Kansas City, Mo., and Kansas City, Kan., 

 up to 150 feet above the streams. Similar deposits are found 

 at St. Joseph and Leavenworth, also along the Kansas river at 

 Muncie, Edwardsville, west of Holliday, at Bonner Springs, and 

 in other places, perhaps as far west as Topeka. This lower 

 loess, as it may be called, also has a lighter shade along the 

 Missouri river, and a redder cast, and more clayey character 

 along the Kansas. 



It evidently is a flood deposit marking an unusually high 

 stage of the streams, since the glaciers left this region. The 

 term loess has also been applied to the silts deposited in Kaw 

 lake and also to that capping lower terraces along the Kansas. 



PLEISTOCENE HISTORY OF NORTHEASTERN KANSAS. 



The Preglacial Stage. The higher chert gravels are believed" 

 to mark the altitude and courses of streams in preglacial time 

 at somewhere about the beginning of the Pleistocene epoch. 

 Accordingly, we believe that at the time the Kansas flowed 

 from 150 to 175 feet higher than at present. Remember that 

 the bottom of the gravels would correspond to the bottom of 

 the present river gravels 40 feet or more below low-water 

 mark. The course of the river ran though the channel north- 

 v/est of Manhattan, thence east, as is shown on the map ; al- 

 ways, so far as known, north of the 'present river as far east as 

 Kansas City. It probably ran east as far as central Missouri. 



The Big Blue and other tributaries had courses similar to 

 those of the present time, but at higher levels. 



