270 
THE St. JosSEPH AND THE KANKAKEE AT SouTH BENpD. By Cuas. R. DrYEr. 
THE MEANDERS OF THE MUscCATATUCK AT VERNON, INDIANA. By CuHas. R. 
DRYER. 
At Vernon, Ind., the Muscatatuck River presents 4 remarkable group 
of meanders. In a course of six miles it forms four loops, enclosing four 
tongues of land which are connected with the mainland by very narrow 
necks. The distance in a straight line from the upper end of the first 
loop to the lower end of the fourth is less than a mile and a half, and the 
perpendicular fall about fifty feet. The general level of the upland on 
both sides of the valley is about 750 feet; the level of the river varies from 
630 to 580 feet. Three of the enclosed tongues slope quite regularly from 
neck to point. Tongue No. 1 is crossed at about its middle by a twenty- 
foot terrace, below which the surface is at a uniform level of 655 feet, cor- 
responding with the top of the hard Niagara limestone. The tip of the 
point is alluvial deposit. Tongue No. 2 is occupied by the town of Ver- 
non, and differs from the rest in that the surface slopes from a high and 
narrow neck rapidly to the 660-foot level, then rises in a double-peaked 
hill to 715 feet, then slopes gradually to a broad point near the 655-foot 
level. Tongue No. 3 has a neck only 300 feet wide at the bottom and 
about ninety feet high. The body of it is about one-fourth of a mile wide 
and one mile long with a very uniform slope. There is a slight terrace 
at the 670-foot level, a decided flattening at 650 feet and a rather broad 
alluvial tip. Tongue No. 4 is the smallest of thé group and has the steep- 
est and most symmetrical slope. 
The channel of the Muscatatuck is 200 to 300 feet wide and cut down 
from twenty to fifty feet into the Niagara limestone, which forms bluffs 
of corresponding height on both sides of the stream. There is practically 
no tlood plain. 
The origin of these meanders is a difficult problem. They are very 
unlike ordinary flood-plain meanders, in which the tongues of land are 
flat and but little above stream level. They differ also from upland me- 
anders, in which not only the channel but the whole valley winds, the 
tongues maintaining a uniformly high level and terminating in a bold 
headland. These are shown in great perfection by the Osage River of 
